Good Fortune
by scorpclaw
Summary: Contains Sonic x Shadow yaoi. Sonic goes to a fortune teller to find out something important to him. Instead of a response, he ends up passing out and wakes up in a strange cave system with many of his friends. How did he end up there and will he get out?
1. The Festival

Good Fortune

Chapter 1 – The Festival

It was a wondrous day for Green Hill Zone. Once every summer, Green Hill Zone hosts a spectacular festival and many people from across Mobius is encouraged to attend. It's a way to celebrate the unity and peace of Mobius in a place that helped defeat enemies like Eggman. Sonic the Hedgehog gets an entire section dedicated to his heroism, and there is a huge statue of him right in the center of the festival.

Many Mobians of all ages were already at the festival early in the morning, chowing down on cotton candy and riding rides. Even some of Sonic's friends and companions were found roaming around in the crowds.

However, Sonic wasn't a part of the fun. At least, not in the beginning. He sat on a nearby mountaintop, watching as everyone else had a good time and listening to the laughs and cheers of children.

He went from smiling to frowning on several different occasions. Of course he would love to be down there having fun with his friends, but there was one person that constantly kept appearing in his thoughts. He didn't know why this person was constantly there in his mind, torturing him, but he knew that he just had to deal with it.

Sonic was about to get up and go for a little walk when suddenly somebody came up from behind him. "I would've expected you to be down there."

Sonic's heart leaped for a second. He thought he was alone. He stood up and turned around to see that Shadow was right there, looking at him. "W-what?" Sonic stammered.

Shadow didn't even flinch. "That festival has a lot to do with you, and you're not even a part of it. Do you not care for anybody's recognition of you?"

Sonic shook his head and tried to keep a smile on his face. "No, I'm fine with the recognition. It's just… believe it or not, it's nice to be all by yourself with your thoughts, even if it means being away from the people you care about for a little bit."

"I see." Shadow thought for the second. "I guess I probably know a concept like that more than anyone."

Sonic approached Shadow. "Well… it doesn't always have to be like that, Shadow. We're all your friends, and you don't have to stay so far away from the group all of the time."

Shadow turned around for a second and said, "I know. But I'm just not comfortable with… social interactions. Besides, with what I've done, I wouldn't be surprised if your friends would be quite as accepting of me."

"You don't know that. They are very accepting people."

Shadow eventually turned back around. "Yes, I'm aware. I hardly see them doing anything but supporting you." Shadow went closer to the edge of the mountaintop. "But I'm not going to be a part of anything. Not yet." Shadow crossed his arms. "There's nothing you can do that can stop that."

"Oh… okay," Sonic said, wondering why Shadow was behaving so strangely. "Well… uh, if you change your mind, then I guess I will be at the festival. I'll probably be roaming with Tails or Knuckles or something like that, so don't be afraid to come find me."

Shadow turned his head. "Okay."

Sonic's smile faded as he walked away from Shadow. He had noticed over the years that Shadow had changed and became better adapted to the world around him. He could tell that Shadow was trying his best to be a better part of society, though he was just having trouble getting comfortable. Sonic figured it was because he was mostly alone for a large portion of his life.

And through these life changes, Sonic got to know Shadow a little better. He got to see beyond Shadow's dark past and got a peek into his brighter future. It made Sonic smile whenever he helped Shadow discover something new about the world that he didn't have fifty years ago. And that caused something to develop inside of Sonic.

The more Shadow and Sonic see each, the more Sonic developed feelings for Shadow. Sonic always wanted to be around Shadow, despite them being fairly different in their lifestyle sense. Sonic would rather be out running while Shadow generally stayed indoors and secluded from the world.

Though, the problem still persisted. Sonic liked Shadow, and he knew that Shadow would never have the same feelings for him. It was a fact that he was just starting to get used to.

Sonic walked down the hillside and eventually walked over to the festival entrance. Everything seemed much bolder when Sonic approached the festival. He knew that they had done much better this year than any other year.

Sonic entered through the front gates, and it didn't take long for people to take notice. He was the blue blur that saved them from Eggman several times, so it was easy to spot him from a mile away.

The kids had little restraint when they all approached. A lot of them where cheering and praising him, admiring his heroism throughout the years.

"Heh, that's me," Sonic said with a bright smile. He kneeled to be level with the shorter kids. He looked at one of the red hedgehogs and asked, "What's your name?"

The red hedgehog was a bit shyer than the rest of the kids. She spoke in a quiet voice when she said, "My name is… Kayleen."

"Hi, Kayleen. Are you having a good time at the festival?"

She nodded eagerly. She turned her head to reveal a Sonic figure painted behind her ear.

Sonic chuckled. "It's really pretty, Kayleen. I hope you have a good rest of the day." Sonic stood up and yelled, "And I hope you all enjoy the festival!"

All of the kids cheered in unison as many of them ran amuck, whether it be to a food stand or to another ride. Many of the parents looked in admiration of Sonic, liking the fact that he was really good with children.

Sonic looked around and noticed that he was being approached. It didn't take long for him to recognize his good buddy Tails approaching him. "Tails! Hey, man!"

Tails waved and said, "Hey, Sonic! It's so good to see you." Tails went up and hugged Sonic. "It's been a few months since we've seen each other, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, it has," Sonic said with a smile. "I'm going to make an effort to come visit you more often."

"I'd like that a lot," Tails said as he let go of Sonic. "Knuckles is here, too. I think he was waiting in line for a ride the last time I saw him."

"Well I guess we can go look for him while we catch up," Sonic said.

Tails nodded. "That sounds good."

Sonic began walking and said, "So, how have you been?"

"Well, I've been doing a lot of inventing lately."

"Oh, really? Anything super crazy yet?"

"Not yet. I've been setting my expectations too high lately and getting bad results." Tails chuckled. "I had to call Shadow a couple of weeks ago to come help me out since he lives so close to me. I got burns from my welding equipment and he had to come help me."

"Wait, what?" Sonic asked, curious about Shadow. "Shadow lives close to you?"

Tails nodded. "Yeah, he moved in last month and is only about a quarter mile away from me. Why, you sound kind of shocked by that?"

Sonic simply shrugged. "I guess… I guess I thought he would tell me about something like that."

Tails shrugged. "Eh, I know you two are friends and all, but he is Shadow after all. He just up and moves without telling people about it."

"Yeah, I know," Sonic said, trying not to let such a small thing get to him. "Forget I said anything."

Tails nodded. "Alright. It's not a really a big deal." Tails paused for a second. "So… back to what I was saying about my inventions."

Sonic didn't pay much attention to Tails after that. He did reply and nod his head, but he didn't do much more than that. He was a little distracted, his mind going to different subjects every few moments. Not to mention that he was a bit tired and hungry.

As Tails continued talking, Sonic looked around at the various food booths and attractions. Eventually, Sonic's eyes landed on a large purple and pink tent had a sign next to it that said "Fortune Teller". Sonic stopped for a moment to stare at the monument of a tent, something about it standing out to Sonic.

Tails turned around once he noticed Sonic stop. "Are you okay, Sonic?" Tails asked as he returned.

Sonic looked at Tails for a brief second before returning his gaze to the large tent. "We didn't have a fortune teller at the festival last year, did we?"

Tails shook his head. "No, and it's funny that you bring that up. I'm one of the coordinators for the festival now and I helped arrange some of the tents and stuff. The old woman that is the owner of this tent asked if she could be a fortune teller for the festival. She told us that it was extremely crucial and people would learn some insightful things from her words."

"Sounds weird," Sonic said.

"It was, but we figured why not. She had the credentials to have a place in the festival, and we never had a fortune teller before."

"Oh, that's actually pretty cool, then." Sonic turned to Tails and said, "We should go inside."

"What about Knuckles, though?"

"It's not going to take that long. Besides, we should at least have a little bit of fun while we're here."

Tails nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Besides, I've never had my fortune told to me before."

"Yeah, me neither," Sonic responded. He walked over to the tent and opened up the entrance for both himself and Tails. The tent was really tall, but the space inside wasn't all that large. Though, it was enough for Sonic, Tails, and the fortune teller to fit.

"Ah, I've been expecting you, Sonic the Hedgehog," the fortune teller said. She was an older white hedgehog. Her idle look seemed somewhat angry, but she had a sweet and tender smile.

"You've been expecting me?" Sonic asked. Sonic knew that people liked seeing him, but no one has exactly… expected him.

"Yes. My fortune has told me that I would be seeing the famous Sonic the Hedgehog in my tent on this very day."

Sonic forced himself to not roll his eyes. He figured she was just making this up just so that he would believe the fortunes were really. "Okay," he said as he sat down in front of the fortune teller's table. It had everything a generic fortune teller would have: a crystal ball, tarot cards, things like that. "So… can you tell me a fortune?"

"Yes, but you need to tell me what fortune I can give you," the fortune teller said, her smile fading. She paused for a moment and then looked at Tails. "I feel the aura is being blocked by your presence, two-tailed fox. In order for me to accurately listen to the spirits, I must ask you to leave until your friend is finished."

"What? But I want to listen to Sonic's fortune, too," Tails protested.

"Then I'm afraid there is nothing that I can do," she responded. "The spirits are shy, delicate creatures. They don't like speaking to more than two beings at a time."

Tails rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Fine." He looked down at Sonic and said, "I'll be right outside when she's done telling you crazy things." Tails walked out of the tent.

Sonic nodded and turned back to the fortune teller. "Are the spirits really shy?"

"Yes, they are. There is a reason why they don't present themselves to very many people in this world. They are afraid of many Mobians."

"Oh," Sonic said, not sure how to respond to a thing like that.

"So, you would like your fortune told to you?"

Sonic nodded. "Yes, I would. That is what you're here for, right?"

"Yes, I am here to speak on behalf of the spirits," she said in a wispy voice. "But first you must tell them what fortune you want to hear."

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about." The fortune teller placed her hands on Sonic's left hand, causing him to flinch. "I can tell that you have a lot of negative aura brewing up inside of you. The spirits are telling me that you are uncertain about something important. Or…" she paused for a moment. "Someone important. Perhaps a loved one… or a companion."

This then brought images into Sonic's mind. A companion. Like Shadow.

The fortune teller opened her eyes and looked into Sonic's eyes, almost as if she could read his thoughts. "Ah, yes. It is uncertainty about a companion. Sonic the Hedgehog… do you know what you need to ask the spirits?"

Sonic didn't even need to think. He knew exactly what he wanted to ask. He nodded and said, "Yeah. I do now." Sonic looked down and then up into the tall tent. "I've had feelings for someone, and I'm not sure if he has feelings for me. Shadow the Hedgehog has been a better part of my lives for a couple of years, and I don't know what I would do without him." Sonic looked at the fortune teller. She was smiling again.

"The spirits are smiling at you, Sonic the Hedgehog. They see the good in your soul." The fortune teller bent over and looked under her table. She rummaged through the many things that she had stored in the tent until she eventually revealed a large jug. It was brown with several purple lines on it. "In order to truly see the light of your fortune, then you must drink from this jug."

Sonic leaned a little bit back, avoiding the jug as she practically forced it on him. "I'm not sure if I feel comfortable about drinking something that I don't know what it is."

"Trust is a funny thing, Sonic the Hedgehog," she said quickly. "However, if you don't drink from this drug, then you will continue to live in the shadows of confusion and your spirit will show eternal holes. If you would like to see the answer to your fortune and bring good fortune to your live, then I urge you to drink."

Sonic hesitated for a moment. He didn't believe that the woman would ever give him something that would harm him, but he could have never been sure if this was all a trick. Though, curiosity was beginning to burn through him, and he almost couldn't stand the thought of not knowing.

He grabbed the jug from the woman and, with a bit of courage, took a few sips before handing it back.

"Good, you've made a good choice, Sonic the Hedgehog," she said, sustaining her smile.

"What do we do now?" Sonic asked as he got over how bitter the drink was. It tasted a little like wine, but it was less fruity and more sour.

"Only time will tell. Wait until the end of this experience and you will see the happy ending that you've been looking for."

"What does that mean?"

"Only time will tell," she repeated.

That's when Sonic felt it. His entire body, little by little began feeling a little strange. First, his stomach became a little queasy, and his head then began to feel heavy. Then he felt his motor skills were shutting down."

"W-what did you do to me?" Sonic asked with the little energy that he had left. He was beginning to lean onto the table in front of him. Everything was becoming incredibly foggy and he almost couldn't hear the last statement from the fortune teller before he passed out.

"Only time will tell."


	2. The Jail Cells

Good Fortune

Chapter 2 – The Jail Cells

Sonic eventually woke up on something hard. His head was pounding with a headache, but the pain was bearable. He slowly moved one limb at a time, making sure that everything was fully functional with his body. When he noticed that there was nothing wrong with him, he finally decided to open his eyes.

He slowly did so, and saw that he was lying on his stomach on a purely rock floor. Sonic used his hands to propel him up until he was able to see the room that he was in.

He was in a large cave room, filled with brown rock.

Sonic quickly got the rest of himself up, managing to stand for more than a few moments. After he got his balance down, he then made a point to do a complete 360 to find out where he was. It was just a large room made out of pure rock, but there was a clear exit at the other side of the room.

Sonic tried to keep calm, though his heart was racing way faster than it should have been. "That old woman drugged me with that drink thing and threw me in here," Sonic whispered to himself. He looked around some more, but found nothing else out of the ordinary in the cave. "What do she want to do with me?"

Sonic began walking towards the exit, since he didn't have anything else planned. He felt groggy and his main goal at that point was to get out of there as soon as possible without getting himself killed. So far, Sonic didn't like his odds.

Little by little, the exit crevice became closer and closer to Sonic until eventually, he was standing right in front of it. He wanted to know where it led before he stepped through it, but there was no way to get that kind of information. So he took a deep breath and went through.

The crevice was somewhat long and it had a light on the other end. He made it halfway through when Sonic finally noticed something. On both sides of the wall, there were several signs. He figured that they had to be important, so he ran back to the beginning of the crevice and read them aloud to himself.

"Welcome to the first step of your enlightenment," the first one said.

"You will witness a lot of loss."

"Your goal is to overcome this loss."

Sonic skimmed through all of the messages, getting more and more anxious by the messages on them. Most of them referred to death and how it was important to the concept of life.

Eventually, when he got towards the end, things became clearer. And scarier.

"There are two lessons beyond this crevice: companionship and sacrifice."

"You must understand companionship before you understand sacrifice. You must understand sacrifice before you understand companionship."

Sonic was getting disturbed by the bothersome words. Though, the last one sign was the one that got to him the most.

"Your friends are here."

This one fact caused Sonic to act quickly. He didn't like the idea that he was thrown into such a terrible situation, but the knowledge of his friends being there in the cave made things much worse for him. He ran forward through the crevice and approached the light on the other end. He ran faster and faster until he was finally out in a clearing.

And he didn't like it. As soon as he left the crevice area, he entered a prison-like room. Even though the ground and ceiling was very cave-like, there were steel bars everywhere, blocking access to small, individual rooms.

Sonic got his bearings in. There were many cells: at least twenty of them. They were all aligned in a perfect hallway format, with cells both on the left and right.

Sonic immediately looked into the cell that was directly on his right and noticed that there was something on the ground. Sonic went over to the cell, hoping to find some answers. As he approached the cell, he didn't find any answers, but he did find out what the red thing was.

It was Knuckles.

Sonic ran forward in shock and noticed that Knuckles was on the ground, his hands covering his legs. He appeared to be in some kind of shock as he slowly and subtly rocked himself back and forth.

"Knuckles?" Sonic asked, trying to get his attention.

Knuckles raised his head, and suddenly life seemed to fill his body almost instantaneously. "Sonic!" Knuckles tried his best to stand up. He struggled a little bit, but he managed to do it. He went over to Sonic, though they couldn't do much with steel bars separating them. "With all that's been going on, it's good to see a friendly face for once."

"I agree. Do you know what's going on?" Sonic promptly asked, trying his best to get to the bottom of this mess.

Knuckles frowned and shook his head. "No, I was hoping that you would be able to tell me. All that I remember for now is that I woke up in this cell about forty-five minutes ago. I tried to figure a way out, but these bars are too strong. They don't even budge."

"Alright, but don't worry," Sonic said, knowing that panic was the last thing that he wanted his friends to have. "I'll get you out of here in no time." Sonic looked around the room and noticed something on the wall right behind Knuckles. "Knuckles, what's that?" Sonic pointed to a piece of paper that said 'Give to Sonic'.

Knuckles turned around and said, "Oh!" He walked over to the wall and grabbed the piece of paper. "I don't know what it says on the inside. I didn't want to mess with anything until I figured out what is going on. I guess it's good that you're here now." Knuckles handed the piece of paper to Sonic. "Read it."

Sonic grabbed it and read it to himself:

_Dear Sonic the Hedgehog,_

_Welcome to the Prison Room. This is where your journey begins, and this is also where you will learn your most important lesson that will be used throughout your experience here in the caves._

_At this time, you have found one of your friends. Many of your friends are in the rest of the cells. You will need them all and their skills to help progress through the caves. Make a poor decision and there will be consequences._

_So please, take the keys enclosed in this letter. The locks are rigged so that each key can go in, but cannot come out. One-time usage only._

_Here's the catch, though. Nine of your friends are trapped behind these walls and there are only eight keys._

_Who are you willing to sacrifice?_

Sonic grabbed the keys attached to the note. He counted them just to make sure he wasn't being lied to. He sighed when he only counted eight. Sonic let the note drop to his side. He couldn't bear the burden of having to make such a decision.

"What is it, Sonic?" Knuckles asked, a sense of concern in his voice.

Sonic didn't even respond. He knew that he needed to act quickly.

And he knew that he wasn't going to sacrifice his best friend. He grabbed one of the key and didn't even hesitate as he brought it into the lock of Knuckles' cell door and twisted it. The door opened easily.

Knuckles heaved a sigh of relief. "Wow, so they just gave you the keys just like that. Man, I should've opened up the letter myself."

Sonic shook his head. "No, this whole thing is centered around me. We shouldn't mess with this."

Knuckles frowned. "Yeah, I get it. I'll just leave it alone for now." Knuckles paused for a second as he collected all of his thoughts into one coherent place. "So… what did the note say?"

"You promise you won't freak out?"

Knuckles shook his head. "We're already in this situation. I don't think there's much more that we can freak out about."

Sonic nodded. "There are nine of us here in these cells, including you." Sonic held up the remaining seven keys that he was given. "We only have a total amount of eight keys."

Knuckles thought about it for a second and then something clicked in his mind. "So does that really mean?"

"One person out of the ten has to be left behind."

Knuckles took one step back. Letting the whole thing sink in. "So… you've already unlocked my door, using up one of your keys. So I'm safe." Knuckles thought some more, and then he eventually smiled. "Oh, but this is dumb. All of these keys must be the same, so all I have to do is pull mine out and reuse it with another door."

Knuckles went over to the door and got a grip on the key. Before Sonic could explain, Knuckles tugged on the key and wiggled it around, but no matter he did, that key did not budge. "Geez, this thing has been super-glued or something."

"Yeah, one-time usage only. Whoever put us in here really thought this thing through."

Knuckles sighed. "Well… I guess we should just figure out who else is in here."

Sonic nodded. "Yeah… you're going to need to help me decide who gets left behind. I can't do that by myself."

Knuckles nodded. "Alright. Sounds fair."

Sonic and Knuckles walked into the hallway and began moving forward. They made it to the second set of jail cells. Sonic looked to his left and Knuckles looked to his right.

"Silver!" Sonic yelled.

"Tails!" Knuckles yelled.

Sonic didn't even bother telling Knuckles what to do. He simply handed a key to him. Knuckles walked forward to Tails' cell. As he did so, he quickly explained all that had happened in the past ten minutes.

Sonic went forward to Silver's cell. He brought a key out in front of him, but then he immediately put it back. He wasn't sure who could possibly be in the following cells.

"Sonic, what's going on?"

Sonic sighed. "If I explained this to everyone, it'll drive me crazy. Just go with the flow for now, and we'll figure things out later, okay?"

"Okay," Silver said quietly.

"Now, do your telekinetic powers work in here?" Sonic needed to know if Silver was capable of being a part of the team later on ahead. He was thinking about the sign that said that his friends had a certain set of skills. For friends that he didn't know well, Sonic had to make a decision in a different way.

"Wha-?" Silver asked, not sure how to respond to the question.

"Do your telekinetic powers work in here?"

"Uh…" Silver lifted his hand towards a rock that was right behind Sonic. He focused deeply on it until a teal aura went around it. The rock slowly went up high into the air before it was released and dropped to the ground.

Sonic watched the whole thing happen and was still amazed by Silver's powers. He knew that Silver was going to be a helpful advocate in the future. Sonic grabbed one of the keys and placed it into the lock. He opened the door and released Silver.

Silver did a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Sonic."

Sonic nodded. "No problem. We're going to need to work together to find out where we are and how to get out." He turned around and noticed Knuckles and Tails walking towards them. Sonic walked forward and embraced Tails in a hug. "Are you okay, Tails?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, Sonic. I just wish I knew where we are."

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, me too." Sonic let go of the hug and asked, "Did Knuckles explain to you what's going on?"

Tails sighed. "Yeah. Nine prisoners, eight keys. One person left behind." Tails looked up to Sonic and asked, "How are you going to decide?"

Sonic shrugged. "I don't know. I guess we should just go through the rest of this prison and find out who is left."

Everyone else agreed that it was a good idea.

They all walked forward and looked into each of the cells. As they passed, they tried to calm anybody down if they started to freak out. Once they made it to the end of the prison, they made a list of everyone that they saw.

Amy, Vector, Espio, Scourge, Jet, and Shadow.

Once they did all of that, Sonic decided to sit down on the hard ground and asked everyone to do the same.

"Alright, guys. We're going to need to make a decision," Sonic said morbidly. "I'm not one to give up incredibly easily, but we don't have any other choice. Someone is going to have to get left behind."


	3. The Tall Room

Good Fortune

Chapter 3 – The Tall Room

Everyone seemed to come to a pretty concrete agreement on who was going to get left behind. Sonic held the keys in front of him, knowing that he had the fate of someone's life in his hands. He just hoped that he made a good decision in the end.

Sonic handed a couple keys to Tails. He opened Vector's door and Espio's door. They were incredibly grateful to the group for making a good decision. Sonic then handed two keys to Knuckles to open up Scourge's door and Jet's door. He nodded and went on to do so.

Sonic then took the final key and stared at it with intent. It was scary for him to make such a decision when it determined someone's life, but he did not hesitate with what he did next. He went over to Shadow's cell and unlocked it. The door swung open and Shadow stepped out.

"To be honest, I almost believed that you would leave me behind," Shadow said sullenly.

Sonic frowned. "I don't think I would be able to leave you behind. You're a pretty vital part of this team."

Shadow nodded. "Well, I appreciate it, then. I'll do all that I can to get us through this."

Sonic smiled again. "That's what I was hoping to hear."

"So…" Shadow started off somewhat awkwardly. "Who is… the one?"

Sonic sighed. He turned around to look at the only cell that didn't have an open door. Inside was Amy the Hedgehog, who clung to the bars as if she would be ripped away from them if she loosened her grip even a little. "She's been a part of our group for so long, but everyone agreed that she would only slow us down."

"Do you regret your decision?" Shadow asked, almost sympathetically.

Sonic thought about the question for a second before shaking his head. "No… none of this is a good decision, but we don't have any other choice."

"I see. I believe that's the best way to think about it."

Sonic nodded. He left Shadow's side and walked over to Amy's cell. Her face was filled with dried-up tears. She cried throughout the whole decision process of who would get left behind. This was sadly a contributing factor to her fate.

"Sonic… Sonic, what's going on? Are you going to let me go?"

Sonic sighed. "No, Amy. I was given enough keys to save everyone… except for one person."

"Wh-what? You're leaving me behind?"

Sonic frowned. "There's nothing else that we can do now, Amy. I-I'm sorry." Sonic turned around and started walking towards the group, ignoring Amy's incessant cries. He figured that this was going to be a recurring theme throughout the time of him being there in the cave. Sonic knew that looking back would only cause him to go insane.

Sonic turned to the group and gestured them to move forward with him to the next room. They all nodded and began following closely behind him, ignoring the growing cries from Amy.

The group went to the hall at the end of the 'Jail' and came across a standard door. They entered through the door into a small room that was surrounded with steel panels. The whole room looked very futuristic, especially in contrast with the rest of the cave so far.

"This place had a lot of work done on it," Vector stated.

"It's a wonder that our captors had enough resources to be able to do all of this," Espio said.

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. This is weird." He stepped forward and saw a door and a note next to it. He picked it up and read it aloud to the rest of the group.

_You have sacrificed one of your own. Now, one of you must sacrifice a piece of yourself._

"What does that mean?" Jet asked. "Are they going to rip our limbs off or something?" He asked as he covered his arms.

"I doubt that they would do that," Shadow responded. "They want to test us, not see us suffer."

"I say that they want a little bit of both," Silver said. He walked forward towards the door. It said "Sacrifice a piece of yourself" towards the top of it. Silver shrugged. "I'm going to open the door. You all might want to move out of the way. If something bad happens, I'll use my powers to nullify the blow a little bit."

The entire room nodded as they went towards the walls and held on. "Be careful, Silver," Sonic stated. "We don't want to lose any more people."

"I'll be fine," Silver said seriously. He slowly twisted the knob and opened the door. As it slowly creaked the door open, fear began to build up in his body. But once it was fully open, he noticed that there was nothing out of the ordinary. It just led to the next room. "See, nothing to worry about. We're all just a bit paranoid from what happened in the jail cells."

Silver stepped through the door. The next minute happened very quickly for Silver. The moment that he entered the next room, a pressure plate was triggered and a mechanism was activated. Two steel plates came down onto Silver. He tried to dodge them, but they managed to nick Silver's hands.

He was knocked over and fell on the ground. He was a little disoriented and his hands twitched with pain, but he knew that he was fine. When Silver got his bearings together, he did a "status report" on what happened. He looked down at where the steel plates had hit his hands and came to a realization.

"Uh, guys. I think I now know what "sacrifice a piece of yourself" means now."

The group ran in through the door, avoiding the pressure plate, and asked, "What?"

All of them looked down at Silver and saw something on his hands. There were two heavy metal clamps that encompassed his hands entirely.

Silver frowned. "Without the use of my hands, there is no way for me to use my powers. At least… I can't use my more powerful and important powers."

Sonic sighed. "Okay. Well, even though I'm sorry for you, I'm glad that it wasn't anything worse." He walked forward and looked at the room that they were in.

It was a pretty large room, but the thing that caught Sonic's attention the most was the height. He looked up and noticed that the room went up several feet. A few rafters were at the top to help support someone.

'Why would there be rafters up there?' Sonic thought to himself. He looked back down and walked forward. The door to the next room was all the way across the room. The only issue is that in order to get to the door, someone would have to float over a huge pit in the floor.

"Silver, I see why they wouldn't let you use your psychic powers," Sonic stated. "They didn't want you floating people over this gap. That would be "too easy" for us."

"Then what are we supposed to do," Knuckles asked.

"I think I know what we have to do!" Tails yelled.

Sonic turned and looked at Tails. He was looking at a sign on the wall. Sonic walked over to it and read the little sign to himself.

_Everyone is important for their specific skills. However, what is it like to test those skills to the limit?_

Sonic wondered what that meant, so he turned to Tails to see what he found out. He saw that Tails was carrying something in his hand. "What is that?"

"It's a very basic Extreme Gear. It's small and doesn't have the best technology, but it still flies."

Jet walked over immediately after Tails said the words 'Extreme Gear'. Jet had been feeling particularly useless up to this point, and figured that being able to do something would be better than doing nothing and dying. "Did someone say Extreme Gear?"

Tails nodded as he held the small board up. "Yeah. It's nothing much, but do you think you can fly it?"

Jet rolled his eyes. "Can I fly it? I'm the best flyer in the world. Of course I can fly it!"

Sonic sighed. "Alright, well this isn't the time to be cocky, Jet. Even though you aren't the best flyer in the world," Sonic stated reminding of their past.

"Whatever." Jet looked over at Tails and put his hands on the Gear. "So… what do you want me to do?"

"There were instructions on the back. They said something about going to the rafters."

"The rafters?" Jet asked.

"Up there," Tails said as he pointed towards the roof.

Sonic managed to get a better look at the rafters. They were a bit larger than he thought they were, but he still figured that they would be unstable.

Jet looked up as well. Even though he was perfectly fine with heights, he wasn't exactly comfortable flying all the way up there with such a primitive Gear. But, he didn't want to show everyone that he's a wimp, so he made his posture bold and said, "I can do that. What am I supposed to do while I'm up there?"

"I guess it's really simple," Tails said. "There's a lever on top, and it opens the door on the other side. Then you take us one-by-one to the other side."

Jet began to sweat. He had the lives of many people in his hands. "What? This Extreme Gear is pretty small for me. How will I be able to carry a second person?"

Sonic sighed. "You can do it, Jet. If not, I can do it for you."

Jet shook his head. "No, I can do it myself Sonic," he said with a cocky tone. He grabbed the Extreme Gear from Tails' grip and placed it on the ground. It hovered there for a moment before Jet hopped on. As soon as he did, he noticed that the board had little to no balance whatsoever. It took him several moments to keep himself straight.

"Are you okay, Jet?" Sonic asked.

Jet nodded after eventually getting his balance. "Yeah, I'm fine." He slowly hovered around the room, testing the new Extreme Gear out. It took him a little bit to get used to the logistics of it, but he eventually managed to get used to it. He finally decided to tilt the Extreme Gear up with his back foot. Raising altitude was even more difficult for Jet to do.

He wobbled a lot, and ever inch that he got off the ground made his anxiety go up. He went higher and higher until he was past the "halfway point". That's when things became scary for Jet. This was the point where falling would either be fatal or incredibly damaging. There would be no doubt that he would be able to go far if he fell. He didn't want to be left behind like Amy was.

He kept going and going, trying to keep his breathing normal and consistent. Though, this wasn't working and his stress levels were shooting through the roof. Eventually, his negative thoughts were effecting his balance and his front foot slipped.

"Ahh!" Jet yelled as both of his feet slid to the back of the Extreme Gear. The Gear went entirely horizontal. Jet knew that if he went any further back, then that would be the end. The Extreme Gear would lose any propulsion upwards and would tumble to the ground. Jet frantically tried to get his footing back to where it should be and tried to push his entire body weight forward to straighten out the Gear.

His heart rate was through the roof as he struggled. He had never been so afraid in his life. But… almost as if something magical happened, his Gear began to straighten out. The more horizontal it was, the easier for Jet to get his footing back together. Finally, when he was back on track to the roof, he held a sigh of relief.

"Why do I even fly? I'm going to have a heart attack," Jet said as he tried to catch his breath. He eventually made it up to the rafters. He quickly jumped off of his board, just glad that he had made it this far. He knew that going down was going to be much easier than going up.

He grabbed his Extreme Gear and held it in his right hand. He then turned around and looked around the rafters. It wasn't very bright up in the area, but he could distinctly see the lever that Tails was referring to. He slowly walked up to it and pulled it. He heard a loud click in the distance, letting him know that it had worked. He let out a sigh of relief and went back to the edge of the rafters.

He put his Extreme Gear down again, but this time he was a lot more timid. He knew that going down was much easier than going up, but if there was even one small issue, he would be on the ground. Jet tried to escape those thoughts as he hopped onto the Extreme Gear.

Jet hovered for a second and then began to head down. As he expected, the trip wasn't that bad. When he reached the ground, he quickly hopped of the Gear and went down to his knees. The whole thing was particularly frightening for Jet.

"Are you okay, Jet?" Sonic asked with a touch of concern in his voice.

Jet released a heavy breath. "I've never been that close to falling down. At least… not at that height."

Sonic knelt down to be next to Jet and said, "Well, that part is over. All we have to do is make it across to the other side. I can even ride the Extreme Gear instead of you if you don't feel up to it."

Jet shook his head. "No." He stood up and faced Sonic. "This whole thing is freaky, but I'm not backing down from this." He grabbed the Extreme Gear and asked, "Who's coming with me first? I can only take one person at a time."

"Why don't you take Shadow?" Sonic asked.

"Why me?" Shadow asked Sonic.

"Because…" Sonic actually had difficult formulating a response for Shadow. "You're an important part of this group, and you should be able to get to the other side with no problem."

Shadow paused, then nodded. He passed by Sonic and said "Thank you" with a tinge of emotion.

Sonic simply smiled and said, "No problem."

Jet hopped onto the Extreme Gear and Shadow held onto him. They began to hover over the hole and towards the door on the other side. Jet seemed to be a bit more comfortable, but he was still fidgety. They managed to get across just fine.

Sonic turned around to the group and asked them to form a uniform line. Everyone did so, trying their best not to push or shove. They wanted as little stress as possible.

Jet returned and grabbed the next person in line, and then another. Eventually Sonic got a ride with Jet until he reached the door as well. Jet then returned for the last person in line.

He climbed onto the Extreme Gear and held on tight to Jet. However, there seemed to be some kind of issue with Jet when they went over the hole. He went through some form of anxiety jump and he no longer felt comfortable with his only flying.

The Extreme Gear began to move back and forth, more rapidly as time went on and on. Jet tried his best to keep things straight, but his passenger didn't fare nearly as well. He was tossed around and…

His grip on Jet finally loosened up.

Jet tried to grab for him as he fell into the pit, but there was no saving him. Jet would've had to jump in after him to save him, which would've meant that they both die. He couldn't even bear the thought of that.


	4. The Sentry Maze

Good Fortune

Chapter 4 – The Sentry Maze

Sonic turned around to the group and asked them to form a uniform line. Everyone did so, waiting for Jet to pick them up and bring them to the other side. They wanted as little stress as possible.

Jet returned and grabbed the next person in line, and then another. Eventually Sonic got a ride with Jet until he reached the door as well. Jet then returned for the last person in line: Vector.

Vector climbed onto the Extreme Gear and held on tight to Jet. However, there seemed to be some kind of issue with Jet when they went over the hole. He went through some form of anxiety jump and he no longer felt comfortable with his only flying.

The Extreme Gear began to move back and forth, more rapidly as time went on and on. Jet tried his best to keep things straight, but Vector didn't fare nearly as well. He was tossed around and…

His grip on Jet finally loosened up.

Jet tried to grab for him as he fell into the pit, but there was no saving him. Jet would've had to jump in after him to save him, which would've meant that they both die. He couldn't even bear the thought of that.

Jet finally dismounted from his Gear when he reached the other side and knelt down next to the hole. He yelled "Vector" thinking that his calls would be returned. The only thing he heard back was the echo of his own voice… and a loud thud.

Espio heard the thud right away and went to Jet's side. He looked down the hole and got a good look at how deep it actually was. He couldn't even see the bottom. Not even close. A teardrop fell from his right eye as he silently said to himself, "Vector…". More tears came from Espio, someone who was perhaps the most stable in the entire group.

Tails leaned into Sonic's ear and asked, "Do you think Espio is going to be okay?"

Sonic thought for a moment and shook his head. "No… he was part of Team Chaotix for a long time, and he just lost the leader… and a good friend from his. It's probably going to take a lot of time for him to be okay."

Tails nodded. "Yeah…"

Sonic walked forward towards Espio and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's going to okay, Espio. Alright? You should put in the effort to keep moving on and survive. Vector would have wanted you to."

Espio wiped away one last tear before saying, "I know, but he deserved better. Both him and Amy deserved better than what they got. And we don't even know what's coming up ahead." He looked up to Sonic and said, "We don't have to put in some effort to survive, Sonic. We have to put in all of it, or we don't stand a chance."

Sonic then became worried. Not only were people being left behind and killed without a second thought or hesitation, but the group's morale was already going down. Espio was brought down to tears when he lost Vector. Sonic couldn't even bear the thought of losing Tails or Knuckles.

Or Shadow.

He got rid of the dark thoughts before turning to Espio and Jet one more time. "We… should probably get going, you guys. There are people in here that are scared, and we need to find a way out of here."

Espio and Jet nodded simultaneously. Jet turned to Sonic and said, "Yeah, let's go."

The three of them stood up and walked back to the rest of the group. They all looked concerned, and most of them looked towards Jet and Espio, trying to think of ways to console them. None of them thought of anything.

Sonic went to the front of the pack and turned around. He got all of their attention before eventually saying, "We have gotten into scary circumstances now. Instead of freaking out and getting sad over our friends' deaths, we need to work together even more so that we don't lose anyone else. We're a team, remember? We've fought through these problems before."

Everyone stood silent for a moment until they eventually nodded. They all understood what Sonic had to say, but they didn't have nearly as much confidence as he did.

Sonic sighed and gestured for everyone to follow him. They did so and walked through the door. As they continued to proceed the cave, Sonic decided to fall back into the group. He turned to the right and saw Shadow at his side.

"A lot of people have lost hope, Sonic," Shadow said with a bit of dread in his voice. "Doesn't that bother you a little?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, that bothers me a lot. I used to be able to make people a little more confident in their abilities, but now they don't have any faith in their survival. I'll probably find someone walk right up to a bomb simply because they can't take it anymore."

"You really think that?" Shadow asked.

Sonic sighed. "No, I don't. We have a great group of people. They're all my friends in some way and they mean a lot to me. I know I might seem heartless for leaving Vector and Amy behind, but the thing is… if I don't get everyone out of here alive, then I might go a little insane."

"Then continue to encourage them. If we make it further and further into this cave without losing any more people in the process, then maybe people will start listening to you. Beyond that fear is a little bit of hope." Shadow paused for a second. "You just have to get it out of them."

Sonic looked at Shadow with a surprised look on his face. "Wow, Shadow. I didn't know you could be so… poetic."

"I'm not trying to be poetic," Shadow said with a lowered voice. "I'm just trying to do what's in your best interest, which is getting out of here alive."

Sonic looked over to Shadow and a smile actually spawned on his face. "Thanks, Shadow. It's good to know that there is at least one sane mind left in this group."

"You're welcome," Shadow replied.

The group continued on their way until eventually they hit a wall with two paths branching off on the left and right. There was a sign on the wall right in front of Sonic. Sonic read it aloud just like he did with the previous ones.

_For those of you who have made it this far,_

_Welcome to the sentry maze. In most mazes, the victim must go through a series of twists and turns to eventually find an exit. In this case, the twists and turns are not your biggest issue. Don't believe me. Why don't you find out?_

Sonic turned back to the group and said, "That worries me a little. We have no idea what could be in these mazes."

"Wait, but didn't it say something about a 'sentry maze' in the beginning?" Tails asked. "That seems kind of crazy, but it's possible. Especially with how sadistic this cave has been so far."

"What's a sentry?" Knuckles asked.

"It's a large metallic gun that's planted on the ground," Tails responded. "Most sentries are set off by movement."

Sonic became even more worried. "Alright that might be a problem. If we don't what's around the corner, then we'll have a lot of trouble getting through here without getting shot. Anyone have any ideas?"

Everyone remained silent for a few moments. Fear was immediately induced on everyone when Sonic mentioned the idea of actually getting shot.

Eventually, though, Espio raised his hand and said, "I can go ahead of the pack and camouflage. That way, I won't get shot and I can let you all know if there is a sentry ahead."

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, that's a good idea, Espio. Why don't you lead the way dooooown…?" Sonic looked to his left and right at both paths. He eventually pointed to his left and said, "That path. If things get too difficult over there, then we'll just turn around and go through the other path.

Everyone nodded in agreement. They all seemed a bit calmer since Espio was going to help them out, though they were still concerned since they would still have to sneak around sentries.

Espio took the lead of the group. Before turning the first corner, he turned invisible and scouted out the area. When he saw that everything was clear, he went visible again and gestured for the group to move forward.

Espio continued to do this trend and the group was moving along. He was beginning to understand the pattern of the maze. There weren't too many paths to choose from, but most of the wrong paths meant getting shot by a sentry. Without his help, it would have been a lot of trial and error.

A lot of fatal trial and error.

They kept moving for another ten minutes until Espio came across a corner. He went invisible and scouted the area. He saw one path led to a turret and the two other paths were empty. He avoided the "guarded" path and went visible again.

Before Espio could yell out to the rest of the group to come towards him, he heard a metallic "whirring" sound from behind him. He immediately turned around and noticed that one of the empty paths turned out to have a sentry in it. Before the sentry began to fire, Espio managed to go invisible again. He rolled forward as the sentry shot at where he used to be. The few bullets that shot managed to miss Espio by a couple of centimeters. He could even feel one of the bullets land right next to his shoe. He noticed the ferocity of these turrets. One bullet could do severe damage.

Espio ran back to the group and went visible again before they could go into the hallway. They all heard the shots fired and were suddenly concerned for Espio's well-being.

"Espio, are you alright?" Sonic quickly asked. "Did it get you?"

Espio shook his head as he put a hand up to his heart. His heart was racing as adrenaline was pumped vigorously throughout his body. "No, I'm fine. As long as everyone else is safe and doesn't go down that hallway, then we should be fine."

The group nodded and Espio continued to move ahead.

Sonic tried to stay in the front of the pack as possible so he could at least be the one to get shot should something go wrong. Though, he didn't enjoy all of the waiting while Espio scouted out of the area. He knew that he and the rest of the group was getting a bit anxious to get out of the maze. They were in "no man's land" and they didn't like it.

Sonic sighed, because he knew that there was something better he could do with the situation. He stopped, causing everyone else to stop as well. He called out, "Hey Espio, get back here really quick."

Espio caught the message and returned to the group. He went visible and asked, "What is it, Sonic?"

"Let's just sit down for a little bit," Sonic said. We've been on our feet for a good hour and we have been through a lot in that hour. Let's just chill here where we know we can't get shot for just a few minutes."

"Yeah, I agree," Silver said.

"Yeah, Blue is right," Scourge said, before sitting down.

Everyone else nodded in agreement before sitting down.

Sonic walked over to Knuckles and Tails and sat down next to them. He said in a soft tone, "So… how are you two holding up?"

"I've been better," Knuckles said. "But to be honest, I'm feeling pretty safe right now."

"Yeah, I agree with Knuckles," Tails said. "Honestly, if you weren't leading us, Sonic, I don't think any of us would be managing very well."

"You really think that?" Sonic asked. "Because all I see is a bunch of freaked-out Mobians who look like they're going to explode at any moment."

"They're going to be like that no matter who's leading us, Sonic," Knuckles replied. "They've just been put in a situation where they have a high chance of death, and they've only had about an hour to let that all sink in. It's a lot."

Sonic nodded and frowned. "Yeah, it just my main issue is that we need to find a balance between getting out of here quickly and taking the time to chill so that we don't go crazy."

"So far I think your method is working," Tails said with a smile. "People who don't really know each other very well are sitting around each other and talking in the middle of a maze filled with sentries. That's a scary combination, but everyone seems to be at least relatively calm about it."

Sonic returned Tails' smile. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe with us working together to both lead and follow, then I think we'll be able to get out of the cave in one pie-…"

Sonic was immediately cut off by a soft siren. The siren was slowly getting louder and louder until it was extremely clear. Amongst the siren, there was a voice that repeated the same words over and over again. Sonic listened in to the words and wondered what they were saying. His eyes widened when the sentence became clear.

_Subjects have been stationary for more than two minutes. Security measures are being sent to your coordinates._

Sonic immediately stood up and said, "Everyone, get up! We need to get out of here now!"

"But what about scouting the area?" Espio asked. "We won't know which way to go."

"That's a risk that we have to take," Sonic yelled. "If we stay here, then we'll get shot anyways. Everyone, follow me." Sonic moved forward and turned around the corner that Espio went in and thankfully went down a safe path. He tried to use his speed as a way to check each pathway which one was safe and which one was a trap. He nearly got shot on a couple of occasions by doing this method.

Everyone tried their best to keep up with Sonic, and eventually they did when Sonic finally stopped at a corner. He was looking forward and saw something spectacular: the exit. "Come on, guys! The exit is down this way!"

Sonic moved forward quickly, checking to see if there were any more sentry surprises along the path. Thankfully there were none and the trip was a safe one for him.

Everyone else moved forward fluidly through the corridor. They were glad that sanctuary from the sentries and the "security" was just a few yards away.

Though, one of them wasn't watching his step. He was running forward along with the rest of the group and stumbled on a jagged rock that protruded from the ground. As he fell, the jagged rock impaled his leg, sending a heavy shock throughout his body.

He tried his best to recover from it, but he felt a little woozy from the impact. He began to get up and eventually he did. Though, since his leg wasn't ready to go straight again, he immediately face planted back on the ground for a second time.

Sonic gasped and yelled back to the person. "Hey! Are you alright?"

He couldn't respond since he was stumbling so much. Sonic was going to run out and save him, but then something drastic happened. After the second to last person stepped through the maze, a door came up from the ground and started to close upwards. The door was moving so quickly, that there was no way for Sonic to run after the guy and save him. They both would have ended up trapped.

Sonic wasn't thinking and turned to Shadow, one of the survivors. "Shadow, can you use Chaos Control to get him out of there?"

Shadow shook his head. "No emerald, no Chaos Control. He's gone, Sonic."

Sonic wouldn't let himself believe that yet another person died, and it was just because he wanted to relax. He turned around, but not without the muffled screams from the other side of the door.

The "security measures" had made their mark.


	5. Blind Room

Good Fortune

Chapter 5 – Blind Room

Jet wasn't watching his step as he ran down the hallway. He was running forward along with the rest of the group and stumbled on a jagged rock that protruded from the ground. As he fell, the jagged rock impaled his leg, sending a heavy shock throughout his body.

Jet tried his best to recover from it, but he felt a little woozy from the impact. He began to get up and eventually he did. Though, since his leg wasn't ready to go straight again, he immediately face planted back on the ground for a second time.

Sonic gasped and yelled back to the person. "Hey! Are you alright?"

He couldn't respond since he was stumbling so much. Sonic was going to run out and save him, but then something drastic happened. After the second-to-last person stepped through the maze, a door came up from the ground and started to close upwards. The door was moving so quickly, that there was no way for Sonic to run after Jet and save him. They both would have ended up trapped.

Sonic wasn't thinking and turned to Shadow. "Shadow, can you use Chaos Control to get him out of there?"

Shadow shook his head. "No emerald, no Chaos Control…" Shadow paused and breathed in. "Jet's gone, Sonic."

Sonic wouldn't let himself believe that yet another person died, and it was just because he wanted to relax. He turned around, but not without hearing Jet's muffled screams from the other side of the door.

The "security measures" had made their mark.

Sonic breathed in with agony. This cave was rigged so that it would send security whenever they stayed in one spot for too long. Everyone couldn't just take a break whenever they needed it. They had no choice to keep moving.

Sonic took another deep breath in, trying his best not to tear up. He said, "I-I'll let Team Babylon know, when we all get out of here, that they're going to need a new leader." He then let loose a few tears.

Shadow remained at his side, letting Sonic have his moment. He then eventually spoke up. "Taking a break was my idea, Sonic. You can't take any blame for this."

Sonic shook his head. "Yeah, but neither can you. How were we supposed to know that this stupid cave is so sadistic that it won't even let us have a little break?"

Shadow sighed. He looked to the rest of the group and felt like he needed to take charge since Sonic was out of commission. He yelled, "Well, you guys saw what happened to Jet. If you don't want this to happen to any of your or your friends, then I suggest you all keep on moving."

The group mourned for Jet's death for a few more moments before heeding Shadow's warning. They all began heading for the door on the other side of the room. The door to the next trap where they figured that someone was bound to die.

Shadow wrapped his arm around the back of Sonic's shoulder, trying to support him. "I'm not going to let you give up, Sonic."

Sonic walked with Shadow. He was blushing since he's never been touched by Shadow this much, but he didn't want to show him that. "I didn't say that I was giving up."

"No, but you were thinking it."

"Yeah, but I gave them a little bit of hope for the couple of minutes that they were sitting and relaxing," Sonic said with a frown. "And now they pretty much have none at all at this point."

"Don't worry about them for right now. They're scared, but they won't try to kill themselves. Behind all of that fear, is a want to get out of here."

"Yeah," Sonic said, agreeing with Shadow. "And I'm going to have to rely on that drive from now on, or else I've got nothing."

"I'm glad you see things my way," Shadow said, a slight smile arising on his face. He unhooked his arm from around Sonic's back.

Sonic went to the head of the pack again and went through the door to the next room. What he saw next was an immediate sense of terror due to the "main attraction" at the center of the room.

Tails went to Sonic's side, and his mouth stayed open in shock. "S-sonic. What is that?"

"Spikes…," Sonic said with no hesitation. He almost felt like he was going to faint. "Lots of sharp spikes." The room looked similar to the Tall Room, except the hole in the floor was replaced with a maze of randomly-placed spikes.

Scourge growled. "Before, at least we were given a chance to get through a room without losing any lives. But how on Mobius are we going to get through a large maze of spikes?"

"Everybody calm down," Shadow said. "There's always a sign somewhere that tells us what we need to do."

"There's something over there," Knuckles said, pointing to their left.

Sonic turned to the left and noticed a little boxed room with glass windows surrounding it. There was a sign on the door. Sonic climbed the steps to the door to the small room and read the sign attached to it:

_You have to learn to trust your friends to proceed. There are many ways to get around this room, but the easiest and most obvious way could turn out to be the most deadly._

"What does that mean?" Espio asked.

"There's a little plaque underneath it that says something," Sonic replied.

_Psychokinesis Room. Only one can enter. The one has a choice for using the powers for good… or leave their friends behind._

Sonic turned around to Silver. Everyone else did the same. "Silver… can we trust you?"

"Wait, why are you looking at me?" Silver asked, suddenly freaking out from the attention.

"You're the one with psychokinesis powers," Sonic responded. "I think you will be able to use them in here in order to propel us over all of these spikes."

"But…" Silver said tentatively. "I only have so much energy. I don't know if I could get all of you through without completely exhausting myself first."

"Well, it's either we give it a shot or none of us gets through," Knuckles said, crossing his arms.

"But the sign said there are multiple ways to get around this room," Silver protested. "I mean, I'm sure there's a better way to get around than relying on me to do all of the work…"

"Uh, guys," Scourge said from the other side of the room. "You might want to take a look at this before you start looking for another way around this room."

Sonic stepped down from the boxed room entrance and led the group over to where Scourge was kneeling. He kneeled alongside Scourge and looked at where he was staring.

"Check it out," Scourge said, pointing to a small shaft with another sign next to it. The contents were simple.

_Left: Spikes_

_Forward: Mini-turrets_

_Right: Leeches_

"If Silver doesn't give us a hand," Scourge started. "Then we're going to have to make our way through spikes, mini-turrets, or leeches. I don't know about you, but I'm not a big fan of any of those things."

Sonic stood up. "I'm not a big fan of them, either." Sonic turned to Silver and said, "Silver, you either go into that room and help us across, or you have to come with us and make it through spikes, turrets, and leeches. What do you want to do?"

Silver thought for a second. Sonic mentioning those three things really got to Silver. He wanted to get through this as painlessly as possible, so he figured that he would take his chances with his psychokinesis powers. "Fine, I'll do it. But… I can't make any guarantees."

Sonic paused for a moment before saying, "Here… I'll make it easier for you, Silver. I'll… take my chances with the shaft with the mini-spikes. Anyone who wants to join me is welcome to, but I wouldn't recommend it."

"I'll go with you," Shadow said shortly afterwards. He joined Sonic's side and crossed his arms.

"Anyone else?" Sonic waited in silence as he saw that everyone else was shaking their heads. Sonic nodded. He figured that Silver would be able to handle four people. "Alright, Silver. Espio, Scourge, Knuckles, and Tails are in your hands now."

"A-alright," Silver said. He turned around and headed for the boxed room. With some help from Espio, since Silver still had his hand cuffs on, the door managed to get open. Though, the second that Silver stepped inside, the door immediately shut right behind him.

"I guess they really meant when they said only one person was allowed inside of the room," Silver whispered to himself. He looked around the room and took in everything. There were windows that gave him a clear view of the 'spike maze', there was a contraption at the center of the room, and there was a door that led straight to the other side. "I guess I could leave everyone behind if I wanted to, but… I would never do that."

Silver shook the thought and examined the contraption in the center. Like always, there was a sign hanging right next to it, explaining the challenge to Silver.

_Place your hands into the compartments to remove your hand restraints and start the challenge. When you're finished, place your hands back into the compartments to engage the hand restraints again. Failure to comply will result in consequences._

Silver gulped, not wanting to know what the consequences could potentially be. He walked up to the center of the contraption and did exactly what the sign told him to do. He placed both of his hands into the slots and the machine went to work.

Though, instead of the hand restraints being immediately taken off, something else happened first. A pair of goggles were lowered from the ceiling and they went in front of Silver's eyes. The goggles were completely blocked, so Silver's vision was completely blackened.

"What's this all about?" Silver said. Just as he said that, his hands immediately felt a weight get released from them. He felt around and noticed that his hand restraints were now off and that he had free control of his hands again. Though, he didn't feel too confident about his psychokinesis anymore, especially since he couldn't see a single thing.

"Guys, we have a problem," Silver said, hoping that the group would actually be able to hear him in the room. Thankfully, there was a microphone in the room that was connected to speakers outside. The vice versa was done as well.

"What is it, Silver?" Knuckles replied. "Can you not use your powers?"

"Well… I can use my powers," Silver said weakly. "But a machine forced me to put on a blindfold on in order to use my powers. How am I supposed to see if I throwing you guys right into a spike or not now?"

Tails spoke up and said, "Don't worry, Silver! When you pick us up, we'll let you know which direction to pull us. We'll give it to you in detail so you don't have to work as hard."

"Though, I suggest you take things slowly before you skewer us," Scourge said.

Silver tensed up with Scourge's harsh words, but he had already accepted the job of getting his friends across and he can't back out now. "A-alright. I guess I don't have much of a choice now. Just let me know when one of you is in position and I'll take you up."

Everyone nodded, forming a sensible line. Some tried to push in the front, but Knuckles was there to regulate everyone so no one got hurt for no reason.

On the other side of the spike maze, Sonic and Shadow managed to get out of the small shaft. They both decided to take the route with the spikes since it was the most definite, but as expected, there were small scratches all over their body.

"Are you alright, Shadow?" Sonic asked, little bits of pain flourishing through his body.

"I've been better," Shadow responded, cleaning up a larger wound on his leg.

"Do you think that wound of yours is going to hold you back?" Sonic asked, concerned. "I can always… carry you through the rest of the cave." Sonic blushed at the thought.

"Being able to walk is not my major concern," Shadow said. "I just don't want this to get infected and screw me up later. But I do appreciate the concern."

Sonic nodded, finally turning towards the spike maze. Silver had already gotten one person safely across and was working on the second. Sonic had no idea that Silver was completely blind, though.

Silver controlled his powers as best as he could and listened intently to everyone's instructions. He took things slowly but surely and gave himself a sigh of relief whenever he got a person to the other side of the room. Though, after handling three people, Silver could already tell that his personal energy was depleting and that he wouldn't be able to carry another person for much longer.

"Hey," Silver started. "I'm telling you right now that my energy is a little low. Do you still want me to take you?"

The last person shook his head and said 'no'. He saw how beaten up Sonic and Shadow looked and he didn't want to have a similar fate.

"A-alright…" Silver responded hesitantly. He picked up the last person and listened to every bit of instructions that he could get. Silver was losing energy fast, so he figured that he should go faster. Though, he soon found out how important his slowness and delicacy was.

"Ow!" Silver heard a scream. Apparently he ran the person right into a spike, getting him pricked in the right leg.

"Sorry!" Silver apologized. "I'll be more careful." Silver became more stressed, and it wasn't doing him much good. His arm began to shake, sending his "victim" into more and more spikes.

"Silver, what are you doing?" The person yelled in agony as he got stabbed multiple times until eventually… the aura around him faded to nothing. Silver's psychokinetic powers had failed, causing the person to fall onto the spikes on the floor. Everyone turned away, not wanting to see another one of their friends get so brutally skewered. Especially since this was the first time where they got to witness the gore right in front of their eyes.

Silver, too, was on the ground. The goggles were already off and his hand restraints were already fastened. He was nearly out of energy, but that didn't stop him from crying in agony.


	6. Computer Room

Good Fortune

Chapter 6 – Computer Room

"Silver, what are you doing?" Espio yelled in agony as he got stabbed multiple times until eventually… the aura around him faded to nothing. Silver's psychokinetic powers had failed, causing Espio to fall onto the spikes on the floor. Everyone turned away, not wanting to see another one of their friends get so brutally skewered. Especially since this was the first time where they got to witness the gore right in front of their eyes.

Silver, too, was on the ground. The goggles were already off and his hand restraints were already fastened. He was nearly out of energy, but that didn't stop him from crying in agony from being the cause of someone's loss of life. He never thought it would happen to him, and now that it happened, it tore him apart.

Everyone turned away from the spikes, none of them seeing the aftermath of what happened to the purple chameleon. They were all so scared to even watch.

Sonic sighed. "Well… at least he's with Vector now. I… know that none of you knew Team Chaotix very well, but is there any last words that any of you want to say before we move on. Heck, is there any words you want to say about anyone we lost? We don't have long, so speak up now."

Silver entered the other side of the room through his special exit. He was thankful that he didn't participate in the trap, but that was only because he had to endure through so much at that point. "Espio didn't deserve what he got. None of the victims deserved what they got. Amy, Vector, Jet… and Espio. Although some of them had blunders while they were alive…" Tears continued to come out of Silver's eyes, cutting him off. "T-they deserved so much better than what they got."

Sonic simply stood there, finally holding the ability to hold in all of his tears. He didn't have any left. "Anyone want to add onto that?"

The group stood there and thought for a second. Scourge simply stood there, getting through the maze with no harm so far. Sonic wondered why he managed to get through this while being so silent. Tails and Knuckles simply shrugged, Silver saying all that needed to be said.

Sonic nodded. "Alright, then. Well, on the bright side of all of this, we're one step closer to being out of this cave. And… looking on the bright side of things will be one of the keys to our survival… Let's go."

Shadow ran ahead of the group and went up to Sonic. "You seem to be taking this much better than you did with the previous rooms."

Sonic shrugged. "I guess you can say that I'm used to it. It's not that I don't see Espio as any less than Amy, Jet, and Vector… I just can't to cry and get upset anymore. It hurts that I have to say that, but I have to get as many people out of this cave as possible." Sonic looked at Shadow. "I especially want you to get out of here alive."

Shadow looked at Sonic, shocked. "Me? Why me?"

"You've been through so much in your life already," Sonic said. "You don't deserve a fate like this."

Shadow sighed. "If that's what you're worried about Sonic, then I suggest you put your priorities on your closer friends, like Knuckles and Tails."

Sonic shook his head. "It's not just that, Shadow. Ever since we entered this cave… you've been so supportive. I can't tell you enough that I wouldn't have made it this far if it weren't for you trying to calm me down. At least… my sanity would've been long gone by now."

Shadow crossed his arm. "Well, it's the least I can do. You've helped me see the light in the past, and now I'm returning the favor. We're going to find the light at the end of this tunnel, and you're going to get yourself out. Alive."

Sonic stopped and smiled, one of the few times that he had smiled in the cave. He turned and gave Shadow a light hug before saying, "Thanks, Shadow. That means a lot to me."

Shadow stood there, wondering what he should do. He didn't think that Sonic would be so courageous and hug him. Though, Shadow didn't as much as flinch when he hugged Sonic back.

Sonic leaned into the hug a bit longer before eventually let go of Shadow. He was blushing a little, but he tried to the best of his ability to hide it from Shadow. "I, uh… I'm going to see if Tails and Shadow are okay."

Shadow nodded. "I guess I'll check on Scourge. Knowing him, though, I think he'll be just fine."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Yeah… he's been pretty silent lately. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing." Sonic went over to Tails and Knuckles. "So… how are you two holding up?"

"Well… I could be better," Tails said. "I've been kind of freaking out a lot."

"I've been trying to keep him calm," Knuckles said. "I'll make sure that things go smoothly until we get out of this cave."

Sonic nodded. "Thanks, Knuckles. I knew I could count on you."

Knuckles nodded as well. "You're welcome." He paused for a second and crossed his arms before saying, "So… tell me about what's going on with you and Shadow?"

Sonic gave Knuckles a confused look. "What do you mean by that? There's nothing going on between me and Shadow."

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah? Then I'm sure that long and intimate hug that you just had with him was completely platonic and meant completely nothing to the both of you."

Sonic crossed his arms. "Why do you care?"

Knuckles chuckled. "I don't. But things in this cave have been so stressful, I need to find _some_ outlet to keep things going smoothly. So spill the beans, hedgehog, because I know you have some."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing," Sonic said.

"Eh… I'm not one for agreeing with Knuckles," Tails started. "But ever since we've been thrown into this cave, you've been spending more time with Shadow than anyone else. In fact, I think I've noticed Shadow starting conversations with you most of the time. That doesn't sound like something he would do since he's so silent all of the time."

Sonic shrugged. "That doesn't mean anything. Shadow is just… supporting me and being really nice to me so that I stay stress-free while we get through this cave alive. Knuckles, you're doing the exact same thing for Tails."

Knuckles shook his head. "Different concept. No offence to Tails, but he's young and is not used to seeing things like this, so I'm trying to help him get through. You… You and Shadow don't have a very large history other than your experience on the ARK. And now he is suddenly being talkative with you and keeping you relaxed throughout this whole thing." Knuckles chuckled and finally added, "And you're liking it."

Sonic sighed. He wanted to keep saying 'no', but he didn't enjoy lying to his best friends. He simply lowered his head and said, "I hate it when you're right, Knuckles."

Knuckles grinned and said, "You owe me ten bucks, Tails."

Tails sighed. "Yeah… when they hugged, I knew it was all over."

Sonic rolled his eyes, finding it ridiculous that Tails and Knuckles actually betted on whether Sonic like Shadow or not. He walked up ahead and opened the door for everyone. They all stepped through and Sonic entered the room last.

What they saw shocked them, but not nearly as much as the last one. The first thing that came to all of their minds was the fact that the entire room was the most technological out of the entire cave. Everything was fitted with metal plating and there was a line of computers at one of the room.

"This seems like a pretty elaborate trap," Sonic said as he walked forward. He looked everywhere for a sign of instructions, but he couldn't find it. Eventually, Sonic walked up to the line of computers. He stared at one of them before he tapped at one of the keyboards. The computer screen in front of it turned on. The screen showed a list of instructions. Before Sonic could read them aloud, a robotic female voice said them for him:

_In the previous rooms, each of you has demonstrated a set of skills. This room is not any different, and the trust factor is even more apparent here._

_This room is covered from floor to ceiling with weapons and security, each with one goal: to stop you. Can you trust someone to shut these things off as you make your escape, or will you be left with the same fate as the sentry maze?_

The computer immediately shut off after the message was read. The computer on its right turned on, showing a series of codes.

"What is this nonsense?" Knuckles said, trying to read the codes. "It's just a bunch of numbers. Tails, can you decipher this?"

Tails looked at it and shook his head. "I understand a little bit about the language, but I don't trust myself to mess with it."

"Does any understand this?" Sonic asked.

Silver looked at it and shook his head. Even though the technology was futuristic, Silver was from a different time and didn't understand it.

Scourge took a look at it and gave a weak smile. "Yeah, I understand. This coding is pretty standard in security complexes. I've hacked through this stuff plenty of times before."

"Do you think you can shut down all of the security?" Sonic asked.

Knuckles looked over at Sonic and glared at him. "Sonic, can we talk privately for a second?"

"Uh, okay…" Sonic said as Knuckles took him aside. "What's up?"

"Are you seriously going to trust Scourge right now?" Knuckles asked. "This is his perfect opportunity for him to get rid of us all at once."

"Why would he want to do that, though?" Sonic asked. "You've seen the puzzles up to this point, haven't you? They all require some kind of teamwork… which requires a team. Unless this is somehow the last room, which I doubt, there is no way that Scourge would be able to make it."

"Yeah, but he doesn't know that. He may know how to hack computers, but he's probably not smart enough to realize that getting through here requires a team."

"Well, then we'll remind him. He's in the same boat as us. Don't underestimate what he can do." Sonic went away from Knuckles and asked, "Scourge, can you reliably shut off the security system?"

Scourge was already at the computer. "Yeah, give me a second. Even though I understand this pretty well, this is some pretty new-age technology." Scourge hit a few more things on the keyboard until eventually something happened. There was a slightly whirring sound and some of the components began moving around.

Sonic looked inside the small glass maze and noticed that the sentries were lowering and the cameras were no longer moving. "Scourge, did you do it? Things look like they're shutting down."

"Hold on a second, Blue." Scourge looked over his code until he got a message. "Yeah, successful hack. All of the turrets and cameras are disabled in this room." Scourge stood up from his chair and put his hands on his hips triumphantly. "I told you that you guys can trust me."

"Yeah, well we're not through this room yet," Knuckles said with a glare. "So you can be glorified later." Knuckles turned to the rest of the group and said, "Let's hurry and get through here before something goes wrong."

Sonic nodded and led the group through the small maze. They were first afraid of the adjacent turret, but thankfully it didn't fire at them since it was disabled. They made it past a few hallways until eventually… something wrong happened.

First red lights flashed… then a shrill siren went on, forcing everyone in the group to cover their ears.

"Scourge! I thought you said you hacked the computer!" Sonic yelled.

"I did! It even told me that the hack was successful and that the turrets and cameras were disabled."

"Well, clearly you didn't," Knuckles said with a glare. He wanted to say something else, but a female robotic voice came onto the speakers above and said:

_Hacker detected. All cameras and turrets were wrongly disabled. Security measures will now be implemented in order to catch the hacker._

"You heard her. Run!" Sonic said. "If we go fast enough, then we can outrun security!"

Shadow shook his head. "Uh, Sonic. We don't need to outrun security." He pointed to the other of the small glass maze to notice that the heavy ceiling panels were beginning to fall with a huge 'clack', causing the floor beneath them to rumble.

"More incentive to run, then!" Sonic said as he ran forward. Because of their super speed, Sonic and Shadow managed to get out of the maze first. They went even further to ensure that they got out of the way of any falling debris. The others continued to run, but one of them was already limping.

"One of the ceiling panels already got my foot," someone said. "But I'll be fine."

Everyone but that one person managed to get out. He continued to limp, trying to go faster and faster despite the massive pain surging through his entire body. Though, things didn't last long for him. Another panel was dropped onto his lower leg, causing him to trip and fall.

The second ceiling panel, plus a large sum of debris, covered up the rest of him.

Sonic and Shadow watched as he did one short scream before being immediately silenced from being crushed under several pounds of metal.


	7. Dual Maze

Good Fortune

Chapter 7 – The Dual Maze

"One of the ceiling panels already got my foot," Silver said. "But I'll be fine."

Everyone but Silver managed to get out. He continued to limp, trying to go faster and faster despite the massive pain surging through his entire body. Though, things didn't last long for him. Another panel was dropped onto Silver's lower leg, causing him to trip and fall.

The second ceiling panel, plus a large sum of debris, covered up the rest of him.

Sonic and Shadow watched as he did one short scream before being immediately silenced from being crushed under several pounds of metal.

Sonic sternly walked up to Scourge and said, "I thought you said that you had the whole thing covered, Scourge!"

"I did!" Scourge said, putting his hands on his hips. "And don't you dare put the blame on me. I tried my best with those computers and I managed to shut off the cameras and the turrets. I'm not the one who designed this whole stupid trap, and I didn't tell the stupid robot lady to call a hacker alert on me."

Sonic loosened up a bit. He looked down to the ground. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry for yelling at you, Scourge."

"Yeah, you better be," Scourge said as he walked away from Sonic.

Shadow walked up to Sonic and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't let Scourge bring you down."

Sonic shook his head. "It's not Scourge that is bringing me down right now, Shadow. I mean… we were so close to getting out of this trap with all of us alive, and then suddenly something went wrong." Sonic quickly turned to Shadow and said, "It's like this whole thing is a game. No matter what we do and no matter how skilled we are, one person dies in every room. And it's just ONE person, too."

"Do you think it could just be a coincidence?" Shadow asked. "I mean, at least each trap is only claiming one life. I mean, the past few traps could have easily claimed all of our lives at once, but they didn't."

Sonic shook his head. "Yes, I am glad about that. But at this point, it can't just be a coincidence anymore. Maybe if it happened in the first few rooms, then I would believe that. But it has happened every time up until this point."

"Well, how can a single death be controlled?" Shadow asked. "It's not like the people who threw us in here could just make the perfect circumstances for just one of us to die at each trap."

Sonic clutched his head. "I just don't know. I just figured that… if I figured out what "they" are planning, then we can get out of here with the rest of us alive." Sonic scratched the top of his head. "I mean, who the heck are 'they'? We keep saying the people who threw us in here, but we didn't even try to think about who they actually are."

"Well, is was the last thing you remember before you ended up in this cave?" Shadow asked.

Sonic stopped to think for a second. "Well… oh yeah! I went to the festival after I talked to you on the hill. I hung out with Tails for a little bit and then…"

Shadow gave Sonic a confused look. "And then what, Sonic? What did you find out?"

"And then I went to the fortune teller's tent. I-I drank something that she gave me and then I passed out. As soon as I woke up, I was here in the cave." Sonic looked at Shadow with a concerned look. "It was the fortune teller. I knew for a fact that she looked shady and I followed through her plans perfectly."

Shadow sighed. "Yeah… that makes a lot of sense. That was my last memory as well."

"Wait, you too?" Sonic asked. "You went to the fortune teller also? I thought you said that you didn't want to go to the festival. What changed your mind?"

Shadow stopped, suddenly feeling a bit nervous. "Um… I was looking for someone because I had something important to say."

Sonic gave Shadow a confused look. "Oh, really? Who?"

"It's private," Shadow quickly said. "You wouldn't understand, Sonic."

Sonic shrugged. "I'm sure I would understand, but I would bug you about it."

"L-let's just focus on the task at hand," Shadow stuttered. "We now have a pretty good idea on who put us in this cave, but that doesn't help us at all. It's not like we can read the fortune teller's mind and try to avoid any traps she's about to throw at us."

Sonic shook his head. "No, we can't. I guess we just need to figure out the kinks to each of these puzzles, and we'll make it out. I'm going to keep my held high, and we're going to continue to use support and teamwork to make it through."

"And that's the way that it should be done," Shadow said.

Sonic nodded. He looked over at Knuckles and Tails and watched as they remained silent. He knew for a fact that Tails wasn't holding up that well, even if he was hiding his feelings very well. "Hey, Shadow. I'm going to talk to Knuckles and Tails for a second before we go through another room."

"I understand," Shadow said.

Sonic walked up to his friends and said, "Hey, guys. How are you holding up?"

"Alright, I guess," Knuckles said. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted Scourge with that room."

Sonic shook his head. "No. It may seem crazy, but Scourge seemed pretty serious when he said that he did all that he could have. Besides, he was at the back of the group when the ceiling began to fall, so he made himself a big target for any backlash of his own trap."

Knuckles sighed. "Yeah… I know. I just wish that… we could do something that would cause everyone to survive."

"We are going to survive. We are going to work hard and we're going to make it out of here alive," Sonic said. "We're not even going to think about dying right now, because that's only going to drag us down and make us feel terrible. We are all better than that."

"I know, Sonic!" Knuckles said a little bit louder. "But things are getting scarier. All of your friends are dying one-by-one and you won't even admit to yourself that it's tearing you apart. I mean, aren't you even afraid of Shadow dying, or me, or Ta-…"

"Don't even say that last thing," Sonic said. He couldn't even imagine Knuckles or Shadow dying. But the thought of his 'little brother' dying would wreck Sonic's mindset for life.

"It's okay, Sonic," Tails said. "I've accepted it."

Sonic looked over to Tails with a concerned look. "What do you mean, Tails?"

Tails sighed. "Sonic, I'm following you in your faith. I have no idea what's going to happen, but if I keep walking in this cave with the belief that I'm going to die in the end, then I'll become an emotional wreck. And that'll only serve to slow us down." Tails stopped for a moment before saying, "We shouldn't think about what could happen or what's probably going to happen. We should just hope for the best."

"Have you really been thinking that this whole time?" Knuckles asked.

Tails shook his head. "No, but after a few of these traps, I started believing what Sonic has been saying. And even though more people are dying, I just have to keep believing Sonic. Otherwise, what else can I do?"

Knuckles looked to the ground. "I don't know, little buddy. I don't know." Knuckles looked back to Sonic and finally said, "Sonic, I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier. It's not your fault that we're stuck in here. Heck, if it weren't for you, I'd probably be sitting in a corner sucking my thumb as I wait for the security to take me away to an insane asylum. So… no matter what happens, just keep reassuring us that everything will be okay. Because that's all we got."

"Wow, guys…" Sonic started. "I don't know what to say, but thanks. I'm glad that you two are holding together pretty well. I was a little worried that everyone was being torn apart."

"Well, now you can worry less," Knuckles said as he crossed his arms. "Just bring us to the next dang room and we'll help you get through it."

"Sounds like a pretty good plan." Sonic took the lead again and brought the last five survivors into the next room. What they saw was really strange, since nothing about the next room looked entirely dangerous. Though, Sonic knew better.

There were two doors: one was open and one was closed. In between them, there was the usual sign that gave them information about what was to come. Sonic sighed and walked forward to read the sign like he normally would.

_Resistance to fear is an admirable trait to have. Go with those whom you are close with, and use your wits and endurance rather than your skill to make it through to the light at the end of the tunnel. You might discover more about someone in the dark than in the light._

"I don't like the sound of that," Tails said fearfully.

"Don't worry, Tails," Sonic said. "Let's just figure out what's going on first."

Shadow crossed his arms and said, "Well, there's two separate sections. Each of them goes through that opening at the far end of this room." Shadow walked forward and pushed and pulled on the closed door, seeing if it would budge. No matter what he did, it didn't move at all.

Sonic approached Shadow and asked, "Why would they even have this area if we can't get to it?"

"Well, then I guess we should just go this way," Knuckles said. He walked through the open door without even a little bit of a hesitation. The moment that he was on the other side of the door, it shut right behind him. Knuckles quickly turned around and let out a small gasp. "Maybe that wasn't shut a good idea."

"Wait." Shadow said. "Everyone look at this."

Everyone turned towards Shadow and noticed that the other door was now swinging open. Sonic looked at it. "Hm… I have an idea." Sonic hesitated for a second before going into the open door. Just like it did for Knuckles, that door shut and the other one opened. "Yeah, that's what I thought. It's trying to split us into two groups. Three on that side and two on this side."

"So someone has to join Sonic, and the other two has to join me," Knuckles explained.

"Exactly," Shadow said. "I'll go with Sonic. Tails and Scourge can go with Sonic."

"Uh… I'd rather go with Sonic," Tails said, still feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

Sonic shook his head. "No, I agree with Shadow, Tails. You and Knuckles will be fine together. Shadow and I will be able to run out of this together just fine, and we'll be able to see if we can help you guys from the other side."

Tails nodded. "That makes sense. We'll try to make this quick, too." Tails entered the door, opening the other door for Shadow.

Once Scourge and Shadow entered their respective doors, Sonic turned to the other group. "Alright, you three please be careful while you're in there. Based on what I read in the sign, you're going to want to keep your guard up."

"I'll make sure that these two get through," Knuckles said. "You two worry about your own hides before you worry about ours."

Sonic nodded. "Alright, thanks Knuckles. Be careful." Sonic turned around and gave a subtle smile to Shadow. "Let's get going."

Shadow nodded and followed Sonic into the next room. The minute that they entered the opening, they immediately realized the fear portion of this room. It was dimly-lit, just enough for Sonic and Shadow to see a few feet in front of them, and the walls were tagged with obscure drawings. The drawings and varied text were made with some kind of glowing substance, making it one of the few light sources in the room.

"This is really bizarre," Shadow said as he walked forward. "It makes you wonder what's exactly being tested here."

"Well you may not see it as much, but fear is being tested here."

"You don't really think that's all they're getting out us, do you?" Shadow asked as he continued to scout out the area. "We've been through brutal rooms for the past couple of hours. There's no way that they're going to attack us with fear now."

"Well, believe it or not, fear is a pretty crazy thing," Sonic said as he looked at the drawings all over the wall. He didn't want to admit it to Shadow, but they were starting to get freaky. "Even emotionally strong people can go crazy if you push them to the limit."

Shadow looked at Sonic. "Do you… scare easy?"

Sonic shook his head. "Not easily, no. But… I do get scared to tell you the truth. You wouldn't think that Sonic the Hedgehog could get scared, but I do."

"That's fine, Sonic. Everyone gets scared by things."

Sonic smiled. "Thanks, Shadow. That means a lot to me. Why don't we pick up the pace so that we ge-…" Sonic was immediately cut off when he began hearing noises. They were faint, but he had the impression that he was being followed. "Do you hear that?"

"I do," Shadow said as he looked around. "Sounds like a faint sound of wolves."

"You don't think that-…"

"They would send wolves in after us?" Shadow finished for Sonic. "We'd better run just in case. There's nothing stopping us."

"I agree." Sonic began picking up the pace until he was going at his usual high speed. Shadow managed to easily keep up with him.

Though, as they made it through the huge room more and more, the sounds became louder and more apparent. At this point, Sonic and Shadow were sure that they were sounds of wolves.

"They're coming after us," Sonic said.

"Don't think about that. Keep running."

They kept on running and the sounds only grew louder. Eventually, the two of them were able to put it in the back of their mind. However, they should've known better than that.

The dark room went to the next level and brought them into a whole new setting. Sonic and Shadow could hear the crunch of leaves. They wondered why they were suddenly walking on leaves rather than stone until they realized that there were trees everywhere.

"Shadow, did we just enter a dark forest?"

Shadow shook his head. "No, we're still in the same dark room. They're trying to throw us off."

"You can't possibly tell me that none of this is phasing you."

"None of this is phasing me. Keep running. I don't want you being afraid for something like this. You'll make it through."

Sonic nodded, appreciating Shadow's words. For a time, that is. Sonic turned to his right and noticed that, along with the wolf barks, there were actually wolf shadows that were running on the walls. At that point, Sonic suddenly began to believe that the wolves were actually real. "Shadow!"

"I see it, too," Shadow said, almost frustratingly. "What else would you do in this situation, though? Would you constantly look back to see if the wolves are actually real, or would you run as fast as you can possibly go?"

"Run."

"Good, now think smart. I think I see a light."

Sonic squinted his eyes and noticed a faint light on the other side of the room. Even though Sonic heeded Shadow's advice, that little space of light gave him a huge sense of relief. He ran faster, causing Shadow to run faster as well.

The space of light continued to grow larger, as did the sounds and images on the wall. Sonic simply looked forward and ignored everything that his mind wanted to tell him. He just headed for that opening.

After a few more moments, Sonic and Shadow reached the other side of the room and exited it into a fully-lit room that looked incredibly similar to the room that they were just in a few minutes ago.

Sonic put his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. "I haven't felt the need to run that fast in a long time. What's all that about?"

Shadow, who was heavily breathing as well, put a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "All that matters is that we both made it out of there without going crazy."

Sonic stood up and turned to Shadow. "Yeah, but not without your help. You… you really knew how to calm me down in there. You basically just knew that everything was a blatant lie and reassured me that it was, too."

Shadow sighed. "I just couldn't… let you get freaked out by things like that. You've already been through so much stress. Petty sounds and images of ravaging animals shouldn't make that worse for you."

Sonic smiled. "Thanks. Let's just hope that everyone else managed to get through that as well."

Sonic and Shadow turned to the adjacent door. They could easily enter it themselves, but they both figured that it would do more harm than good to come in for the other three. The sign that said 'There will be consequence for those who enter the doors from this side' also encouraged them to stay put.

Though, it didn't take them long for them to hear screams coming from inside. "That can't be good," Sonic stated.

Sonic listened in to what was going on inside the room, especially since he could see what was going on since it was so dark. That's when he heard something different than wolf sounds.

There was an alarm. An alarm that he recognized from before. From the Sentry Maze. Sonic listened more intently and heard what he already expected to hear.

_Subjects have been stationary for more than two minutes. Security measures are being sent to your coordinates._

Sonic's eyes flashed open. "That's why they wanted to freak us out."

"What?" Shadow asked.

Sonic turned to Shadow. "They set off the alarm! They stayed in one spot for too long. Our kidnappers didn't want us to slowly go mad from all of these sounds and images. They wanted to see if we would hide somewhere or wait for the scary things to pass before we went on." Sonic turned back to the door and heard more screams. "They… stayed in one spot for too long."

Sonic watched for several moments, hoping that all three of them would make it out safely. Something told him, though, that there was going to be one person missing when two of them showed up at that door.

Sonic's hope rose when he heard rapid footsteps going from a faint pitter-patter to close-up running. Sonic knew that someone had survived. He heard a couple of them scream as they went towards the door.

And eventually they had made it.

All… two of them.

Sonic was shocked, even though he had expected one to be missing.

**Who's not there? Knuckles, Tails, or Scourge? This is not a guessing game. It is entirely up to you, the readers! Comment on this chapter to vote in the poll on who was crushed! Find out the results of the poll on Monday!**

**Additional author's note: I have been reading your guys' comments, and I would like to encourage you all to read until the VERY ending. There is a method behind my madness. I mean, look at my other fanfics and you'll discover that I wouldn't make a story this dark without a good reason.**

**P.S. The character deaths are **_**your**_** choice through your votes, not mine. If you want a character to live, don't vote for him/her.**


	8. Beach Room

Good Fortune

Chapter 8 – The Beach Room

And eventually they had made it.

All… two of them. Knuckles and Tails.

"W-what happened to Scourge?" Sonic asked.

"We hid behind a tree for a couple of minutes because we thought wolves were chasing us," Knuckles stated. "We were so freaked out about it that we forgot about the '2-minute rule'."

"We then ran as fast as we could so that the security wouldn't get us. We made it into the forest area, and…" Tails paused.

"And what?" Sonic asked, somewhat frantically.

"Scourge tripped over a branch or something," Knuckles said as he tried to catch his breath from running so fast. "We tried to help him out, but the security was quick. I heard a gunshot and Scourge screamed and clutched his leg."

"Knuckles and I bolted since we would've died if we went back to help him," Tails said, finishing the thought.

"That was a smart move," Shadow said, stepping in. "We should probably get a move on. Who knows if the security will keep coming or not."

"Yeah," Knuckles said, placing his hands on Tails' shoulders, trying his best to console him after running for so long from fake wolves and security.

Sonic went ahead towards Shadow. "I haven't been more scared in my life," Sonic said, still trying to catch his breath from earlier. His heart rate was slowly going down.

Shadow turned to Sonic. "Why are you more afraid now than you were before? The circumstances haven't changed."

Sonic shook his head. "It's because… Tails isn't a fast runner. When I heard that alarm go off, I had a strong feeling that he was the one who wasn't going to make it in the end." Sonic turned to Shadow. "He… Tails means a lot to me, Shadow."

Shadow stopped Sonic and brought him in for a hug, something that greatly surprised him. "Listen, Sonic. I'll always be there for you. But look at the circumstances you're in right now. You're two best friends are here with you right now. Despite the bad that has been happening in the past couple of hours, I think you should take as much good as you get."

Sonic smiled. "Thanks, Shadow. But you need to know that I'm also afraid of losing you, too. Tails and Knuckles may have been my friends for years, but you have done nothing but support me through this. You need to know that I appreciate you for that."

Shadow separated the hug. "I'll keep that in mind. Now… let's get through this right now. This time, you don't need to worry about a bunch of people anymore. Just worry about yourself, Knuckles, and Tails."

"Yeah… I guess there is a little less weight to carry now," Sonic said with a flat face. "As sad as that may sound."

"It's fine. You couldn't have changed it even if you wanted to. Now let's go."

Sonic and Shadow walked forward. Shadow wrapped his arm around Sonic and rested his hand on Sonic's shoulder. They used each other as a form of crutch as they entered the next room. Knuckles and Tails took note of this and almost smiled at the form of affection.

The four of them made it to the next door. Right next to it was a sign.

_You have 30 minutes. You're welcome._

"What in the world does that mean?" Knuckles asked.

"I don't know," Sonic responded. "But don't thank them yet. Who knows what that 30 minutes could be for." Sonic reached for the door handle and twisted it. He opened the door and felt something completely different than what he had been used to. Something a little more… natural.

As soon as he opened the door, he felt a slight breeze go through his fur. He shivered a little bit since it was cooler than the rest of the cave. As soon as he entered the next room, Sonic heard a little clicking sound, kind of like a metronome. He turned to his right and looked up. There was a clock that was counting down from thirty minutes.

"I guess they weren't kidding about the thirty minutes thing." Sonic walked forward and he eventually understood why their kidnappers should be thanked. After only a few steps, Sonic could feel his feet slightly sinking in a thin pit of sand.

All around them… was a beach. Pictures of a well-designed sky with clouds and a sun were plastered all over the wall and ceiling. Half of the room was filled with water and the other half had sand. On the sand were two sets of chairs, a blanket, and an umbrella. Despite it all being a fake room inside a giant cave system, it all looked incredibly realistic.

"Wo," Sonic said as he walked forward through the sand. He turned around and asked, "I think they're giving us a break."

"I don't know, Sonic," Knuckles said, crossing his arms. "This seems like a pretty huge trap to me."

Shadow shook his head as he joined Sonic on the sand. "I don't think so. As skeptical as I can be in a situation like this, the creators haven't been exactly subtle about throwing us traps. They let you know what's going on. This should be no different. We have thirty minutes apparently to do whatever we want."

Tails walked onto the sand as well, testing to see if it was quicksand of some kind. He even felt it with his bare skin and still didn't manage to find anything wrong with it. "I guess I can agree with Shadow's logic. But we should still keep our guard up just in case something goes wrong."

Sonic nodded. He sat in the sand and removed his shoes and socks. "Might as well get comfortable while I'm here." Sonic felt a little bit of pain since some of the sand was rubbing against Sonic's wounds from the Blind Room, but he managed to deal with the pain.

Knuckles walked onto the sand and turned to Tails. "Hey, Tails. Why don't we try out the water? I could go for a good swim, actually."

Tails kicked off his shoes and socks. "Yeah, swimming sounds pretty nice right now." He dropped off his stuff over by the blanket and chairs and headed out to the water with Knuckles.

Sonic simply stayed putting, watching as Tails and Knuckles tested the water before they went swimming in it. He then sat down at one of the beach chairs, finally relaxing after a couple hours of being on his feet.

Shadow sat down next to him. He turned to Sonic and asked, "Do you not want to get in the water? Knuckles and Tails seem to like it."

Sonic shook his head. "No… I'm not exactly a fan of water."

Shadow nodded. "I see."

"Why don't you join them?" Sonic asked. "You shouldn't have to stay out of the water at my expense."

Shadow shook his head. "No. It'd probably be a bit painful to put my wounds in water, anyways. It's already bad enough in the sand."

"Yeah, I know how you feel," Sonic said, his legs still fidgeting from the slight pain. "I still can't believe that they're giving us a break."

"It could perhaps to prepare us for what's to come," Shadow said simply. "I don't believe it'll be any different, but it's a thought."

"Yeah, I've preparing this whole time for what's ahead." Sonic paused and watched Tails and Knuckles play. They hadn't played like that in a long time. Even though they had been through so much since entering the cave, they still had the energy to put a smile on their faces and have a good time. It made Sonic smile a bit, too.

"Hey, Sonic?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, Shadow," Sonic replied, phasing him out of his thoughts.

"What are you going to do if we all make it out of here alive?" Shadow asked. "I mean, things are going to be a little different now that some of those people are gone."

Sonic looked down and sighed. "If all four of us make it out of here alive, I think I'm going to make an effort to live life to the fullest. You know, how I used to live my life normally."

"Have you not been living your life to the fullest?" Shadow asked. "You seem to have life way more figured out than I do."

"Well… not lately," Sonic replied. "I haven't made too much of an effort to enjoy myself in the past few days. Tails and Knuckles have gone out without me on a few occasions, and to tell you the truth, I sometimes get lonely."

"Why haven't you mentioned it until now?" Shadow asked. "Don't you have friends other than Knuckles and Tails?"

"I don't know why I haven't mentioned it. I guess I was ashamed since I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. I shouldn't be having these weird feelings."

Shadow chuckled and crossed his arms. "You can have those weird feelings even if you were the most popular person on the planet." He turned to Sonic. "You don't have to be any different just because a bunch of people think highly of you. You can feel whatever the heck you want."

Sonic smiled. "Yeah… I guess that's true." He turned to face Shadow. "It's crazy hearing that from you. N-no offence"

"None taken. I've… had a long time to think about myself and what I mean to the world. After being isolated from everyone for so long, I've come to realize that I don't care what anyone thinks of me anymore."

"That's awesome," Sonic said, smiling even brighter. "I guess that's why you've been striving to keep me from going insane. You think about others."

"Well, there's more to it than that," Shadow stated as he looked away.

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.

Shadow looked towards Tails and Knuckles as they splashed around in the water. "Well, the thing is Sonic, I really do admire you. I can't think of very many bad qualities with you, even when you're hot-headed and cocky."

Sonic blushed. "You really think that?"

Shadow nodded, not paying much attention to Sonic's heated cheeks. "Yeah, I do. The truth is Sonic… the main reason that I've been helping you stay sane is because I want you to get out more than anyone."

"W-why is that?" Sonic asked, his cheeks going even redder.

"It's because I… it's because I li-…" Shadow was cut off when he saw something. "Oh Mobius."

"What?" Sonic said, almost freaking out. Sonic followed Shadow's gaze towards the water and eventually looked at Knuckles and Tails. What he saw immediately shocked him.

"K-Knuckles and Tails are kissing?" Sonic asked. At first, he was completely shocked by the completely bizarre sight. But it didn't take him too long for him to loosen up and smile. "I-I'm so glad for them."

"Did you know about this?" Shadow asked.

Sonic shook his head. "No, I didn't. I guess… they found romance for each other. Knuckles has been helping Tails out, much like you've been helping me out. Kind of crazy that this is the result of all this." Sonic looked at Shadow. "You don't look to happy about it."

Shadow leaned back in his chair. "Well, I'm a little stunned to be honest with you." He looked down and away from the sight. "But I guess I'm a little jealous, too."

"Jealous? Did you Knuckles or Tails or something?"

"What?!" Shadow said as he darted a glance towards Sonic. "No… there is no way that I'd find an attraction towards those two. I was… I was really talking about what they have for each other."

"You… think about love?" Sonic asked.

"Sometimes…" Shadow said, somewhat embarrassed. "I've had my eye on someone, but I just don't know how to tell him my feelings."

Sonic thought about his own situation. His crush was sitting next to him, telling him that he had a crush on someone. Most likely someone else. "Y-yeah… I know how you feel. It's tough telling people how you really feel about them. I… I probably won't even get the chance to tell this person how I feel."

Shadow's look on Sonic faded a little. "Please don't tell me that this person is… now dead."

Sonic shook his head. "No… he's alive. Yeah, thankfully he's alive."

Shadow nodded his head, a frown appearing on his face. "Okay… good. Maybe you'll be able to tell him how you feel when you come home."

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, I think I might just do that."

Shadow was about to say something else, something important, but he was immediately cut off by a red light that encompassed the room.

_You only have two minutes left. Exit this room before time is up, or security measures will be sent to your location. We hope that you enjoyed your stay in the beach room._

Sonic almost chuckled at the last statement, almost thinking that it was sincere of them for giving him a break. But he already knew what was to come, so he wasn't prepared to say thank you yet.

Sonic and Shadow got up from their beach chairs and put their shoes back on. Knuckles and Tails got out of the water and did the same. As soon as Sonic was done getting his shoes on, he walked over to Tails and Knuckles.

"I guess I should congratulate you two," Sonic said with a slick smile.

"It's a long story," Knuckles said, hugging Tails. "With a happy ending."

"But thanks Sonic," Tails said, blushing at Knuckles sudden affection. "I kind of figured that you would be happy for us. Especially considering your circumstances."

"Which you should resolve," Knuckles said as he put his shoes on.

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.

"Sonic, we're going into the unknown right now," Knuckles said sternly. "If you don't tell Shadow about how you feel, you may never get the chance to do it again."

"Why do you care?"

"Because you care," Knuckles replied. "You and Shadow have been a great team trying to get us out of here alive. Not only do you deserve to let out your feelings, but he deserves to hear them. Besides, it sounds to me that he likes you."

"You don't know that," Sonic said as he put his hands on his hips. "He just said that he is having trouble telling his feelings to a crush of his. There are plenty of guys out there. What are the chances that he was talking about me?"

Tails sighed. "Let's think a little logically, Sonic. We all know for a fact that Shadow has purposefully secluded himself from the public after his many deeds in the past. Therefore, he has not had much interaction with people. So, let me give you an overview of all of the guys that he has had direct contact with in the past year. Espio, Vector, Jet, Silver, Scourge, you, me, and Knuckles."

"You basically just named off all of the guys that were in the cave with us," Sonic said.

"Exactly," Tails said. "Five of those people are currently dead and two of them just kissed right in front of him. That leaves only one person."

Sonic sighed and thought for a moment. "I won't believe it unless I hear it from him."

"Well make it quick," Knuckles stated. "I'm not trying to be pessimistic here, but you may not have much time."

"I know," Sonic said with a sigh.

"Hey!" Shadow yelled. Everyone focused on him before he said, "We only have 30 seconds to leave this room. Let's get a move on."

"Coming!" Sonic yelled back. He began walking with Knuckles and Tails towards the exit door. He whispered to Knuckles and Tails, "I promise I'll tell him soon, okay?"

"Good," Knuckles whispered.

They continued walking out of the beach room. Shadow opened the exit door for all of them and they all walked through it with ten seconds to spare. As soon as Shadow closed it, they all could hear a locking mechanism being triggered. There was no going back to the beach room.


	9. Balance Beam

Good Fortune

Chapter 9 – The Balance Beam

The remaining four survivors walked forward into the next room. What they saw seemed all too simple, but they knew better than that.

Sonic walked forward, expecting to see a sign somewhere next to the trap, but he couldn't find one anywhere. He searched and searched for it, but couldn't find it.

"Sonic, you're looking for this, right?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic turned to his right and noticed Knuckles standing next to the sign that he was looking for. "What does it say?" Sonic asked.

"Nothing that you want to hear," Knuckles stated. "It says 'You're on your own'."

"I don't like the sound of that," Sonic said.

"Well, this one doesn't look too complicated," Shadow said as he examined it. "Everything seems to be pretty self-explanatory."

Sonic approached it. The room was separated by a giant a hole in the center. The only thing that was bridging the hole was one skinny balance beam. Sonic knelt down next to Shadow and examined the balance beam. "This doesn't make any sense. This almost looks too easy. I could easily crawl along this thing without even having to worry about it. And I have terrible balance."

"Well, I would agree with you," Shadow started, "But we're just going to have to test it out before we can really say for sure. Judging by the sign, it seems that's what we're meant to do."

"Why don't you two go ahead?" Tails said. "You two seem to have the biggest grip on all of these traps, and I'll feel a lot better knowing that you two made it."

Sonic nodded. "You got it, buddy." He turned to Shadow and asked, "How do you want to do this?"

"Why don't you go first? I'll go right behind you and I'll be able to catch you if you for whatever reason lose your balance."

"Sounds fair, but who will be able to save you if you fall?" Sonic asked.

"I'll be fine," Shadow responded. He chuckled. "I'm the ultimate life form, remember?"

Sonic chuckled as his response. "Yeah, I guess you are. You can get through anything." Sonic positioned himself right next to the balance beam and began moving forward. One small motion at a time, Sonic began to move across the balance beam. Once all four of his limbs were on the balance beam, he really started to feel the burden on his body. "Maybe this is a bit more difficult than I thought it would be."

"You're doing great so far," Shadow responded. "Keep in mind, I'm right behind you if you need me. Just don't kick me."

Sonic chuckled. "I promise, Shadow. I won't kick you." Sonic continued crawling on the beam. With the thought of Shadow being right behind him, he found that it was actually easier to keep his balance.

"Sonic…" a voice said.

Sonic stopped and bobbed his head left and right. "Did you guys say my name?"

Shadow stopped as well. "No. But I did hear your name get called. What was that?"

"Sonic…" the voice said again, this time a bit louder and clearer.

"This time I definitely heard it!" Sonic yelled. "What is that?"

"I-it…" Tails started. "It sounded a little like Amy."

"_Sonic… how could you leave me behind like that?"_ The voice was distorted and brought down a couple of semitones, but it was definitely Amy's.

"Oh, my god. What's happening?" Sonic asked. He began to struggle like he did earlier. His arms and legs suddenly felt weak and he was no longer keeping his balance well. He began to sway.

"Sonic, calm down. That can't possibly be Amy," Shadow said.

Sonic nodded. "I know…" Sonic said. He continued to go forward.

"_Sonic… I thought you cared for me. There was no remorse when you left all of your friends behind."_

Sonic stopped and struggled more. He refrained from tearing up at the thought of leaving all of his friends behind. "Wait, but she could still be alive. We never saw her get killed. She could still be alive!"

Shadow grunted. "It doesn't matter, Sonic. Whatever this is, our captors are trying to freak you out and it's working! Ignore it!"

Sonic nodded. He continued going forward, still feeling fidgety. "This is just like the dark room, except much, much worse." Sonic continued to go forward as more and more messages are heard with a demonicized Amy voice.

_You're heartless for doing what you've been doing._

_You don't deserve to have the friends that you have now._

_Sonic the Hedgehog doesn't deserve his title as a hero. He's a coward._

Tears started falling from Sonic's eyes, but he still pushed forward. He knew that he had gone through all of those traps and left all of his friends behind, but if he were to fall now, then he would be leaving the rest behind to die. He wasn't prepared to do that. He went faster and faster, using the demonic phrases as fuel to push forward. He closed his eyes for several moments and by the time they were open again, he and Shadow were both on solid ground again.

Sonic let out a huge breath of relief. He struggled while he was on solid ground, but he managed to stand up. He was a little shaky at first, but he stabilized himself after a few moments. He looked at Shadow, who was standing up himself. Sonic gently went up to him and gave him a hug. "Thank you for getting me through that," he said.

Shadow rested his head on Sonic's shoulder. "It was no problem. And just as a reminder to you… you do deserve your friends and you do deserve to be a hero." Shadow broke up the hug and said, "Because if it weren't for you, there wouldn't be any hope."

Sonic wiped away one of his tears before saying, "You are said that before."

"And I'll keep saying it until you get it across your thick head."

Sonic smiled. He almost wanted to say 'I love you' to Shadow right then and there, but he knew that the occasion wasn't great. Especially since his two best friends were already about to begin their journey across the balance beam.

They did a similar approach where Tails took the lead and Knuckles was behind him to use as a support. Sonic liked this approach, because he knew that Knuckles was more than capable of keeping himself and Tails up on that beam

"_Tails…"_

"Oh, no," Sonic said. "They're not really going to pull the same thing on him."

"_Tails, there's not going to be anyone for me to come home to."_

Sonic didn't recognize the voice, but Tails most certainly did. "I'm sorry, Charmy…" Tails said. He was completely stopped and his arms were beginning to wobble.

_Vector and Espio were the only family that I had. And you let them die._

_What kind of heartless being would do that to a friend like me?_

Tails breathed in heavily, before letting out a rough breath. "I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't save Vector and Charmy if I tried."

"Keep remind yourself that," Knuckles said. "Tails, you know that you couldn't have saved anyone back there. And you know that's not Charmy speaking to you. Do you really think that he would actually be saying these things to you?"

"No…" Tails said.

"Good, now keep moving. Don't worry about what others think. Worry about your own life right now."

Tails nodded and then proceeded forward. He was a still bit shaken, but he managed to move forward a bit more. Though, he didn't make it too far until something else made it onto the speaker system.

"_A good, kind person wouldn't have watched his friends die like that. Knuckles doesn't deserve you."_

"Shut up, Cream!" Tails yelled to the imaginary rabbit. Tails started to understand the tactic that their captors were trying to go for with him. They were turning all of his close friends against him, and it was beginning to make him shake. "K-Knuckles, I don't know if I can keep going forward. I keep shaking."

"It's okay, Tails. Take all of the time that you need to get your bearings straight."

Tails stayed put for a few moments, but finally decided to go anyways, despite being completely shaken. He continued forward and ignored the few other comments that Cream and Charmy treated him with. Though one, finally drove him over the edge.

"_Why don't you just do us all a favor and fall?"_ Even though Sonic was standing in the same room, his voice was played through the speaker system. This shocked Sonic… but even worse, it shocked Tails.

As soon as Tails heard 'Sonic' say that, his tremors became too much. His legs slipped, and the only thing that were keeping him up were his weak and trembling arms. "Help me!" Tails cried.

"Sonic, why did you say that?!" Knuckles yelled. "You're going to kill him!"

"I didn't. Do you really think I would say something stupid like that to get my best buddy killed," Sonic yelled, freaking out. He got down on his hands and knees and was about to go after Tails to save him, but he was immediately pushed back by Shadow.

"Don't you dare get back on that beam!" Shadow said, glaring at Sonic. "I'll go help Tails. Stay put." Shadow then shimmied himself back onto the beam, quickly getting himself over to Tails.

While he was doing that, Tails was barely struggling to hang on. One-by-one, his fingers were beginning to unclamp from the beam. Knuckles grabbed one of Tails' hands, but even he struggled to get Tails back up.

One of Tails hand fell, leaving Knuckles to be the only one holding onto him. Since Knuckles was trying to stay on the beam and hold onto Tails, he was using up most of his strength.

Tails hand was slowly slipping out of Knuckles grip. After a few more seconds, Knuckles was on the brink of letting Tails go. Before that could happen, Shadow quickly came in to the rescue. He got all the way over to Knuckles and immediately grabbed onto Tails' arm. Knuckles was no longer dropping Tails with Shadow's support.

Knuckles got a better grip on Tails' hand and Shadow reached down to grab Tails' other hand. Using their combined strength and balance, they both manage to lift Tails back onto the beam. Knuckles then pushed Tails while Shadow pulled them all to safety on the other side.

Sonic knelt down next to Tails and asked, "Are you okay?"

Tails' heart rate was through the roof at this point. "I'm… I'm fine."

Knuckles turned Tails head so that they were facing each other. Knuckles brought Tails in for a hug. "I can honestly say that this was probably the scariest things I have ever witnessed in my entire life. I'm not even trying to be dramatic here, but seriously, that was ridiculous."

Sonic took a few steps back, letting Knuckles and Tails have their moment. Shadow stood up and walked over to Sonic. Much to Sonic's surprise, Shadow ended up hugging him. "Oh…" Sonic squeaked. "What's this for?"

"I'm just glad that it wasn't you in that situation," Shadow said. "… B-because that was a freaky situation to be in."

Sonic smiled and blushed heavily. He was glad that Shadow couldn't see his reddening cheeks. "I'm glad that you did what you did. You just saved Tails' life. How can I repay you?"

"Don't die. That's all you can give me."

Sonic didn't know whether to chuckle or be serious. He decided on being serious and responded, "Yeah… I'll try my best. For you."

"Good," Shadow said before giving up the hug.

Sonic looked past Shadow and saw the romance that was happening between Knuckles and Tails. Despite Knuckles completely unromantic nature, they were nuzzling each other and giving each other little kisses. Sonic didn't know that a relationship could develop that fast. Sonic figured that all of this fear and stress was helping them along by making them appreciate their lives more now that theirs were on the line.

"H-hey, Shadow," Sonic said, finally going in for the moment of truth. He looked back into Shadow's eyes. "Can I say something important?"

"Sure, Sonic," Shadow said sincerely. "What is it?"

"For the past while, I've developed these feelings… and I've been meaning to tell you that…" Sonic looked over at Tails and Knuckles and noticed that they were already up. That's when he remembered that they were standing there for quite some time. He didn't want to set off the alarm again. He used it as an excuse to get out of the uncomfortable situation with Shadow. "N-never mind. It can wait."

"Are you sure?" Shadow asked, almost urging Sonic to finish that statement. "It sounded like it was pretty important."

"It's fine. We can talk about this later." Sonic immediately turned around and headed for the door to the next room, practically leaving Shadow in the dust.

Knuckles ran forward to Sonic and said, "Coward."

"What do you expect me to do, Knuckles? I'm freaking out right now, especially since we almost lost Tails, and confessing my love for Shadow isn't exactly at the top of my agenda right now."

Knuckles sighed. "You're lying. Yes, it is. If you don't tell him soon and one of you dies in one of these rooms, then you're going to regret it forever. What's stopping you?"

"I don't know, Knuckles!" Sonic whispered loudly. "I've never done this before. Like… I don't know how Amy does it. She asks me out all the time, even though she knows that I'm going to reject her. This is much harder than I thought it would be."

"Well, you better figure it out soon. Use me and Tails as an example. I got my feelings off of my chest, and look at where we're at now."

"Well, you two are lucky." Sonic sighed. "The main thing is… I kind of figured that Shadow would tell me instead of the other way around. Since he hasn't so far, then I guess I'm not the one he's crushing on."

Knuckles looked down to the ground. "I'm sorry, Sonic. I don't want to push you like this, but I want you to be happy, too. Besides… the guy that you have such huge feelings for. Yeah, well he just saved my boyfriend. I'd like him to be pretty happy too."

"We'll see, Knuckles." Sonic placed his hands on the door. "I don't know. Maybe I am a coward."

He opened the door, getting ready for the next trap to begin.


	10. The Exit

Good Fortune

The Exit

Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, and Tails entered the next room and took a look around, doing their normal routine. The first thing that came to Sonic's mind when they made it into the clearing was that the room was especially large, even when compared to the tall room and the jail cells in the beginning.

"How in the world did they manage to fit such a huge space into a cave?" Knuckles asked, almost as if he read Sonic's mind. "This place is massive."

"With all of the places in the world that would make a viable cave system, this wouldn't be impossible. But the idea of putting in cameras, sensors, traps, and all of this other stuff seems like an awful lot of work just to make ten people miserable."

"I doubt that we're the only subjects," Shadow responded as he looked around. "Even if everyone on the planet helped out with the creation of this cave system, it would have taken ages to build. No doubt that they would want to use it on many people."

"Seems kind of sadistic," Knuckles said as he took a walk around the room.

"Well, what did you come to expect?" Sonic said simply. "They definitely did not bring us down here so that they can feed us tea and crumpets. They want something from us."

"Makes sense," Shadow said, searching for the sign that gave out the rules of the room. "They make this sound like one big test. Not only do they gives us signs that explain the trap, but they also explain what the trap means." Shadow looked back at the group. "Teamwork and trust seemed to have been a recurring theme in almost all of the rooms."

"We can work out the logistics of this later," Tails said.

"Tails is right. Someone look for the sign that explains this trap and I'll take a look around." The group nodded and searched the beginning area. Sonic took several steps forward and got a good look of the entire room.

It was a huge oval with a deep hole in the center, resembling that of a generic racecar track. There were some stairs leading upwards on the other side which peaked Sonic's interest. All of the rooms up to this point had been keeping them going in a straight line. This was the first time that he had seen anything that would lead up.

"Sonic, I found the sign!" Shadow yelled. "You're really going to want to hear this."

"I could use some good news," Sonic said. "What does it say?"

_Welcome to the exit. If you have made it this far, that means you have learned a lot about the people around you and how to work well with each of them. That also means that you have made it through the most grueling traps that life has perhaps thrown at you._

"You got that right," Knuckles said, crossing his arms.

"I like the sound of this," Sonic said. "I don't like the part about the most grueling traps in my life, but I do like the idea of being next to the exit. Does it say anything about getting there, though? Something tells me that they're going to let us leave lightly."

"There's more," Shadow responded.

_In order to make it to your freedom, you must pass this final test. There are several pressure pads on each side of the room. Even one slight push of the pressure pad will set off something that will most certainly lead to your doom. Watch your step._

"Okay, that's a little scary," Tails said. "What did they mean? What's going to come out to kill us?"

"I think I have your answer, Tails," Sonic responded. "Come here everyone!"

Knuckles, Tails, and Shadow kneeled down next to where Sonic was and looked at one side of the room.

"Are those what I think those are?" Shadow asked.

"Train tracks," Tails simply said, essentially answering Shadow's question.

"You mean that there are pressure pads all around these tracks that set off a train?" Knuckles asked. "That would kill you in a second!"

Sonic shook his head. "No, that would kill EVERYONE on the track in a second." Sonic stood up and looked down at the rest of his friends. "Alright, guys. I don't want to get all dark on you right now, but we have to think smart about this."

Knuckles stood up. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, there are two sides to this room and it seems like they're both the same thing. Train tracks, pressure pads, deadly train."

"Your point is?" Knuckles asked.

"My point is that we all should not be on the same pair of train tracks. If one of us slips up then we would all die because of it."

"So are you saying that we should split-up?" Shadow asked.

Sonic frowned. "I-It's just a pre-caution. I have complete confidence in all of you, and I believe we will all make it out of here. But… just in case."

Tails nodded, though he wasn't particularly happy about the plan. "No, we get it, Sonic. Knuckles and I will take one side and you can take this side with Shadow."

Sonic nodded. "Alright, that sounds good."

Knuckles pat Sonic on the shoulder. "I'll see you on the other side, alright?"

Sonic flashed Knuckles a slight smile. "Yeah… I'll see you on the other side, Knux. I believe in you."

Knuckles and Tails left their side and headed for the other side of the room. Knuckles slowly took a step onto the tracks, paying attention to where the pressure pads were. Tails followed him, essentially placing his feet exactly where Knuckles left so that there was no guessing where a pressure plate was.

"I see their technique," Shadow said as he stepped onto the first track as well, avoiding some obvious pressure plates.

"I do, too. I'm guessing you want to take the lead."

Shadow chuckled. "I'm always taking the lead, Sonic."

Sonic rolled his eyes as he followed Shadow's lead. "Oh sorry your majesty. I didn't mean to offend you."

"I find it surprising that you're actually a bit calm when doing this," Shadow said, watching his every step.

"Well, if I start freaking out now, then there is a really high chance of me fidgeting onto a pressure plate," Sonic said, starting to feel a bit more tense. "And I never heard what it's like to get hit by a train. I have a pretty good idea why."

"Don't even think about the train," Shadow replied as he jumped to the next train track. "Think about the exit instead. That's what I'm doing."

"That's what I'm doing too. Getting to the exit is probably why I'm joking around with you in the first place."

"And that's a good thing," Shadow said, nodding.

"I guess I should let you concentrate, though," Sonic stated.

"Don't worry about it, Sonic," Shadow responded. "If it calms you down, then it calms me down, too."

Sonic smiled. "Alright, then. Then I guess we'll make it to the exit in no time."

On the other side of the room, Knuckles and Tails remained silent. Knuckles knew that Tails was probably really nervous about each of his steps, but he couldn't think of anything to say that would make him feel better. Especially since he was too busy concentrating on his own steps.

Eventually, he stopped for a moment and asked, "Are you alright, Tails?"

"Yeah, I good Knuckles," Tails said as he stepped on a track weirdly. "C-can you keep moving?" he asked since he was fidgeting around.

"Sure," Knuckles replied. He jumped to the next train track and kept the motion going. He made sure to turn back to Tails periodically to make sure he was okay, but he couldn't exactly tell how he was doing. In reality, Tails' heart was shooting up and he was starting to get shaky. This was causing him to make mistakes.

After a few more technical steps, Tails landed on a track wrong and nearly stumbled backwards. "Knuckles, grab me, grab me, grab me!"

Knuckles turned around and noticed that Tails was falling backwards, directly onto a sea of pressure plates. Knuckles quickly held his hand out to save Tails from falling and managed to grab him. Though, this didn't do too much good.

Tails' weight was just enough to topple Knuckles over along with him. They hit the ground with a solid thud and Knuckles could've sworn that he heard several clicking sounds. He gasped and waited a moment for what was coming next. It didn't take long.

A big red light on the right side of the room began to flash as a moderate alarm went off.

_The train is now arriving!_

Knuckles and Tails freaked out, getting themselves up immediately. They turned around and tried to see if they could escape through the entrance, but… what they saw made their faces go white. A gate had already risen from the ground to block them from getting off of the train tracks. The same had been done with the other side.

They had two choices: take the train or jump into the hole in the center of the room.

Sonic and Shadow watched this all unfold. "No, Knuckles, Tails!" Sonic yelled. He instinctively went into hero mode and tried to run and save them, but he didn't pay attention to his own predicament. The first step he took caused him to land on a pressure plate. The similar alarm process ensued on their side of the room.

"Sonic, what are you doing?!" Shadow yelled, as they could hear a faint train horn in the background.

"I don't know! I snapped!" Sonic yelled. He looked around and noticed that they were also trapped and that the train was coming. Sonic looked at the other side as Knuckles and Tails tried to claw their way through the metal bars of the gate. They had no such luck.

Sonic turned to Shadow, looking desperate. "W-what do we do, Shadow?"

Shadow stopped for a moment and stared at Sonic. Sonic's legitimate fear was reflected in his own face. Though, he wasn't fearing for his own life as much as he was fearing for Sonic's life. His look of fear went down to a look of sadness when he eventually said, "End of the line."

"W-what?" Sonic said, gasping. "You're giving up on this, Shadow. You don't have any more plans to help us get through this?"

Shadow shook his head and grabbed Sonic's arms. "We slipped up, Sonic," he said calmly. "It's the end of the line now."

"Shadow," Sonic started. "Please hug me. I really just… need someone to hug me right now as my entire life crumbles."

"I want to do more than just hug you right now," Shadow responded.

"Wait, what?" Sonic asked, feeling almost embarrassed from hearing that from Shadow.

"Sonic…" Shadow said as he looked around. "This might be a bad time to say this, but I literally have no other time to say it ever again. Sonic, I have had feelings for you for the past couple of years and they have not gone away. You would think that I could easily just get rid of them like I would with everyone else in my life, but they haven't gone away."

"What are you saying, Shadow?" Sonic asked, a few tears leaving his eyes.

"Sonic, I love you," Shadow responded. "I just needed to get that off of my chest before I die with y-…"

Shadow was cut off since Sonic pressed his lips up against his. They were like that for a few moments before Sonic separated from him. "I… I've had feelings for you this entire time, too. Everybody kept telling me that I should just tell you, but I was a coward."

"Y-you love me, too?" Shadow stuttered.

Sonic sighed. "'Til death." Sonic leaned forward and gave Shadow a warm kiss.

Sonic didn't know what he was feeling at this point. This was the most emotions he has ever felt all at once. The impending fear of being hit by the train, his heart rushing at several beats per minute, and the warm feeling from Shadow's breath.

Though Sonic could hear the train closeby, Shadow's kiss braced him for the impact.

It never came.


	11. Finale

Good Fortune

The Finale

Sonic woke up in a cold sweat. He had no idea what was going on. He half-expected to be a non-recognizable hedgehog attached to the front of a train. However, he was just resting his head on an uncomfortable wooden table, with a tinge of a headache fogging up his thoughts. He wondered if this was what death felt like.

Sonic slowly rose his head, trying to figure out where he was. He opened his eyes and let everything clear up a bit until he realized what was going on. When his vision had completely cleared, things started to make sense… and not make sense at the same time.

He was back in the fortune teller's tent. Sonic looked around and noticed that there wasn't a thing different about it. He even looked at himself and noticed that even his scars from the Blind Room were completely gone.

"Either I'm dead or I'm going crazy," Sonic whispered to himself.

"It's neither, actually," Sonic suddenly heard.

Sonic turned directly forward and noticed the fortune teller sitting there directly in front of him. "W-what did you say?"

"You are neither dead nor crazy, Sonic the Hedgehog," the older woman stated. "But I believe you have a bit more insight, and you have the answer to your question. And you have perhaps gotten answers to questions that you never thought to ask."

"What are you talking about?" Sonic asked.

The fortune teller cleared her throat. "You told me that you had feelings for someone very close to you, yet you didn't know if he showed the same feelings for you. Think about that statement again. Do you now have the answers that you have seeked?"

Sonic thought about visiting the fortune teller before the "cave", and easily remembered what he told the old woman. But then he thought about the room that he was just in. The room with the trains. He remembered seeing his best friends lose their lives to one of the trains and then he remembered the train coming for him and Shadow.

That's when he remembered the kiss.

"Shadow… likes me, doesn't he?"

The fortune teller smiled. "The spirits smile down on you, Sonic the Hedgehog. They see much good in you, and they have shown you things that you never believed would happen. Now do you understand what you must do?"

"Yeah, I do." Sonic stood up and looked down at the woman. "Thank you very much."

"You're welcome, Sonic the Hedgehog."

Sonic turned around and exited the tent. Right outside was Tails and Knuckles, sitting at a nearby table while they waited for Sonic to come out of the tent.

Sonic approached them and said, "Hey, guys."

"Hey, Sonic," Knuckles said with a smile. "It's been awhile since I've seen you, buddy." Knuckles took Sonic's hand and shook it. "I heard that you got your fortune told to you by some crazy chick. How'd that go?"

Sonic smiled. "I'd say it went pretty well. I've learned some… pretty good things about myself."

"Well, I hope so," Tails stated. "You sure were in there a long time. Knuckles and I have been meaning to tell you something important, and you sure took your time."

"I'm sorry, Tails," Sonic said, shrugging. "I didn't want to take too much time, but there was just a lot of things to be said." Sonic put his hand on Tails' shoulder before eventually thinking about what Tails meant when he said that he and Knuckles had something important to say. He then thought back to the cave and the fortune teller's premonitions, and he decided to test something out. "But you two don't have to tell me anything. I already know what's going on between you two."

Knuckles looked up at Sonic with a kind of a concerned look and asked, "Y-you do?"

"Yeah, guys," Sonic said, sitting next to the both of them. "It was kind of obvious for a little bit. But I am totally supportive of both of your relationship."

"Wow, really?" Tails said, surprisingly. "I thought you would react badly."

"Why would I react badly?" Sonic asked.

"Because we figured that since we've been best buddies for so long, you'd think that it would be weird for me and Tails to go out," Knuckles stated. "Besides, Tails begged me not to mention it to anybody, so I kept it on the down-low."

"Well… you guys don't have to do that anymore." Sonic put on a hand on Knuckles' shoulder this time. "You two are doing it out of love, and I really appreciate it. Besides… I think you two would make a really nice couple."

"Thanks, Sonic," Knuckles replied. "That actually means a lot to me… to us."

Sonic smiled. "I'm glad I could clear that up for you two." Sonic stood up and said, "I'm going to… explore the festival for a little bit, guys. There's somebody I need to go look for."

"Oh, who is it?" Tails asked. "Maybe we can help you."

Sonic shook his head. "No, thanks. I think I'm going to need to do this myself."

"Oh, well okay. Maybe we can catch up with you later," Knuckles said. "There's a bunch of rides here, and I'm sure you're going to want to get on some of them with us."

"You bet!" Sonic said with a smile. "So I'll go looking around for you guys in a half hour or so."

"I look forward to it," Tails said, smiling both at Sonic and his now outed boyfriend.

Sonic walked away and so many things seemed to flash by in his mind as he walked through the festival.

"Hey, Sonic!" Someone said as she approached him. It was Amy. "Do you want to go on some of the rides with me?"

Sonic shook his head. "Sorry, Amy. I have to go look for Shadow and a few other people to talk about something important. But maybe I'll ride something with you later on, okay?"

"Oh…" Amy said, somewhat disappointed. But she perked up when she noticed that Sonic was being more considerate of her feelings. "Well, then I'll hold you up to that. I'd better see you later."

"You will," Sonic said, pleased that Amy didn't pester him. "Bye, Amy."

"Bye, Sonic," Amy said gleefully.

As Amy walked off, Sonic continued forward. He took in all of the sights, seeing a few children wearing his signature blue quills as a form of headgear. Some of them asked for his autograph, but he ended up turning them all down. He didn't want to be stopped forward to fill in all of those requests.

Though, he did stop for Vector and Espio, who approached him after finishing a game at one of the tents. "Hey! Are you guys enjoying the festival so far?"

"It could be better," Vector said, maintaining a faint smile. "I keep losing at the little minigames at the tents. The rings just don't want to make it onto the bottles."

"You tried your best," Espio said as he wrapped his arm around Vector. "Don't worry, by the end of the day, you'll win something."

Vector smiled down to Espio. "Thanks, Espio."

Sonic gave both of them a solemn. "I see that you two are very happy together."

"Yeah," Vector said, pulling Espio in closer. "I don't what it is about today, but today feels like a good day for the both of us."

"I couldn't agree more."

"Well, it is a festival after all," Sonic replied. "You should take the time to have fun with each other."

Vector nodded. "Yep. I think so, too." Vector kissed Espio on the forehead, something that Sonic wasn't used to seeing. "Well, we don't want to take up too much of your time, Sonic. We've got to find a tent that'll be easier to win."

"Well, good luck with that. You two have fun." Sonic walked forward some more and eventually bumped into Team Babylon, who was waiting in line to get themselves some lunch. Sonic tapped Jet's shoulder and said, "Hey. I haven't been seeing you guys in the sky much."

Jet turned around and rolled his eyes. "Wave has been keeping us grounded until we perform here at the festival today. She says that we need to 'save our strength for today', but I think she's nuts."

"Well, I wouldn't worry too much about it. How about we race after you perform? It's been awhile.

Jet nodded. "Well, I didn't know that you wanted to lose so badly during the festival that is centered mostly around you. But if you're fine with being humiliated, then who am I to say no?"

"Yeah, well we'll see about that. I'll come find you."

Jet smiled. "Sure thing."

Sonic walked away from Team Babylon as they ordered their lunch. He walked past a series of rides and stores, only to run into Silver. He was in charge of all repairs since he had psychokinesis powers, so managers were constantly throwing him all over the place to make sure that everything goes smoothly for them. At the moment, he was fixing one of the rides by gently floating parts into the machine.

"Hey, Silver. Nice to see you," Sonic stated.

"Hey, Sonic. It's been awhile, hasn't it?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, it has been a long time." Sonic looked at Silver while he worked and asked, "Is this job very difficult?"

"You better believe it," Silver replied. "Getting parts into an accurate without touching anything else is more difficult than it looks."

"Oh, no. I know exactly how difficult it is." Sonic thought back to Espio being skewered by the spikes in the Blind Room and how exhausted Silver was simply by moving a few people through the room. "Well, then I'll leave you to it. You're doing a great job, Silver."

Silver smiled as he put down the part into its correct spot. "Thanks, Sonic. I needed to hear that. I've been working all day."

"Bye," Sonic said before letting Silver get back to work. It wasn't longer after that until he eventually bumped into Scourge, who was waiting to board the ride that Silver was fixing.

"Blue, you might want to watch where you're going before you bump into people," Scourge said as he wiped dust off of his jacket.

"Sorry, Scourge. It's just a lot to take in at the moment. This festival is much more elaborate than it has ever been."

Scourge shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. I wasn't planning on going, but Fiona dragged me out here."

"Girls, right?"

Scourge chuckled. "Yeah, girls. But hey, at least I can agree with you on one thing. This is a lot to take in."

"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. I'll be sure to pass that message onto the makers."

Scourge nodded. "You do that. I'll just wait here and watch Silver boy finish this dang ride."

Sonic shrugged. "Eh, give him some slack. He's been working hard."

"Yeah… whatever," Scourge said, crossing his arm.

Sonic walked away and was now completely satisfied. He ran into every person that he thought was dead a few moments before. He didn't want to believe it himself, but he had learn a lot of things by being in that cave. Those nine people felt a little closer to him than they ever had before. Even for his closest friends like Tails and Knuckles.

Though, he was about to be close with somebody else, and Sonic had just found him walking past the carousel.

Shadow caught Sonic's eye and they both walked over to each other. "Shadow. I-I thought you weren't coming to the festival."

Shadow shook his head. "I wanted to come find you, actually. There's something important that I need to tell you that I was too afraid to tell you up on the mountain."

"Oh, wow," Sonic said. In most circumstances, he would be concerned because Shadow seemed very serious. However, in this case, Sonic was very excited for what was to come. "Do you want to go somewhere private or something?"

"No… if I'm going to tell you this, then I'd rather do it out in the open than in a cowardly spot."

"What do you have to say then?" Sonic asked, urging Shadow to continue.

"I've had feelings for you… for a long time, Sonic. I thought that they would go away, but they haven't and it's starting to tear me apart."

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked, trying to sound surprised.

"I mean… I mean I like you a lot."

Sonic smiled. He wanted to go through a whole monologue to explain how he felt the same way for Shadow, but he had already gone through a 2 hour "dream" to figure out that Shadow had feelings for him. He didn't want to wait much longer, so he did the simplest thing that he could do.

He leaned in and gave Shadow a small kiss on the lips, giving him a little sneak peek of how he felt for him.

Shadow looked at him and blinked. "Y-you kissed me. Wait, what?"

Sonic nodded and smiled. "Yeah, I kissed you. Are you going to do something about it?"

Shadow smirked, liking that Sonic was his old self, even with some as intimate as this. "I think I have one thing that I can do." Shadow gently placed his hand on the side of Sonic's neck and slowly pulled him in for a more intimate kiss.

Sonic melted into the kiss, more than he did the first time back in the cave. Even though both cases felt so real, he liked this one so much more. He wondered if it had something to do with the fact that a train was about to him before. He shrugged and got rid of the thought.

Eventually the two separated the kiss and looked at each other. Shadow chuckled, a slight blush arising on his face. "I, uh… I didn't expect this to work out so well. I didn't really plan anything after this."

"Well, here… walk with me. I have yet to explore the rest of this festival."

"That'd be nice," Shadow said with a smile.

"Maybe after this we can even go find a cave to chill in," Sonic said, joking with himself.

Shadow cocked his to the side. "A cave? What are you talking about?"

Sonic chuckled. "Eh… I'll tell you one of these days. It's a pretty crazy story, but it has a happy ending. Well… kinda."

"I guess I'll just have to take your word for it."

Sonic chuckled. "Good. I'll take it."

Sonic grabbed Shadow's hand and they walked through the festival, a wonderful day being designed after a few minutes of "sleeping". Sonic wouldn't have wanted it any other way.


	12. The Good Fortune Outline

Good Fortune

Outline

Here are ALL of the final tallied votes from DeviantART and . Also when I say "second choice" I mean the person who got the second-most votes in the previous room (since the person with the most votes died).

**Jail Cell  
**1. Espio - 1  
2. Vector - 2.5  
3. Amy – 5  
4. Jet – 4.5  
5. Scourge - 2

**Tall Room**

1. Espio  
2. Vector – 7.5  
_**3. Amy - DEAD  
**_4. Scourge – 2.5  
5. Silver  
6. Knuckles  
7. Tails

In the event that Jet is left behind in the jail cell, the "second choice" will have to climb up a thin rope to get to the top of the Tall Room.

**Turret Room  
**_**1. Vector - DEAD  
**__**2. Amy - DEAD  
**_3. Scourge - 1  
4. Silver - 1  
5. Knuckles  
6. Jet – 10  
7. Tails

In the event that Espio is killed in ANY of the previous rooms, the group will have to manage to get past all of the turrets on their own. The "second choice" is going to get shot

**Blind Spike Room  
**1. Espio - 6  
_**2. Vector - DEAD  
**__**3. Amy - DEAD  
**_4. Scourge - 3  
5. Knuckles - 4  
_**6. Jet - DEAD  
**_7. Tails

In the event that Silver is killed in ANY of the previous rooms, the "second choice" will have to crawl through a small chamber that is filled with many spikes.

**Computer Room  
**_**1. Espio - DEAD  
**__**2. Vector - DEAD  
**__**3. Amy - DEAD  
**_4. Knuckles - 3  
_**5. Jet - DEAD  
**_6. Silver – 7.5  
7. Tails - 1  
8. Scourge – 1.5

In the event that Scourge is killed in ANY of the previous rooms, the "second choice" will have to attempt to hack the computer. The result will vary depending on the character (Vector will be more successful; Amy will be significantly less successful)

**The Dual Maze  
**1. [Survivor #1] – Knuckles - 1  
2. [Survivor #2] – Tails - 2  
3. [Survivor #3] – Scourge - 11

Sonic and Shadow will go into one maze and three survivors will go into the other. One "survivor" will not make it out alive.

**The Beach Room  
**No one will be killed in this room. This room is purely for the survivors to relax.  
- Sonic and Shadow will bond.  
- The two survivors, NO MATTER WHO THEY ARE, will fall in love. I'm ScorpclawFF. Someone other than the main characters has to fall in love.

(Vector and Scourge with any young character is the ONLY exception to this rule. i.e. Tails and Amy.)

**The Balance Beam  
**_The plan WAS to kill the weaker person here (meaning Tails at this point). But in the middle of writing this, I didn't have the heart to kill Tails. Not without Knuckles._

**The Exit (Also known as the Train Room)  
**This room is basically set in stone, guys. The first train gets the last survivors. The second gets Sonic and Shadow together, shortly after they confess their love to each other.

_Amy, Knuckles, and Tails have an intricate role to the story._

None of them hold any skillful values for any of the rooms, however they have something special.

Tails and Knuckles will help support Sonic. If they die early on, Sonic will be somewhat depressive down the line. If they survive longer, they are the ONLY ones that Sonic will tell about his feelings for Shadow. i.e. Helps produce better exposition.

Amy will slow down the group. Period. She will draw attention to the "key" person in each room and distract them.

Vector has no significant purpose in the story whatsoever. No real reason. I just couldn't find anything for him to do, so… yeah.

**Final Author's Note**:

Thank you to all of you who voted and supported this story! Surprisingly, you all voted for one of the most perfect routes that this story could have taken. Amy, the "slow down" character, and Vector, the insignificant character, were the first two to go. EVERY single key character was available for their respective rooms, so each room played out as it should have normally. AND Tails and Knuckles managed to make it to the end. Like… basically perfect.

Vote Totals: (in order by death)

1. Amy - 5

2. Vector – 10

3. Jet – 14.5

4. Espio - 7

5. Silver – 8.5

6. Scourge – 21

7. Tails - 3

8. Knuckles - 8


End file.
